The Importance of Now

Right now is important. No matter what else you may learn, here or come to understand today remember this: Right now is important. This moment is the only chance you have to do anything and yet most of us let right now slip through our fingers. We become blasé to right now because it is always right now. However this does not change the fact that every right now we let get away is one we will never get back.

There are two main ways we squander right now:

Dwelling: There are two types of dwelling and both are equally distracting from the now. We can easily be drawn to the things we regret beating our self up over past failures, or we can waste our time thinking about all we have accomplished. If we do wither of these things we will not be present in the now our ability to act correctly becomes greatly diminished. Worse we become so focused on either reproducing the successes or avoiding failure we lose the creative spark that makes our actions uniquely us. Instead we become imitators of our own style, Thomas Kinkaid's of living our own lives; cranking out cheap copies of the actions that where once great.

Planning: We all plan out days, it is a natural thing to do to stay on task and keep ourselves organized. However it should not be a constant process. There is a time to plan and there is a time to do. If we are constantly planning, replanning or reviewing what we should be doing next rather then focus on what we are doing now we are squandering the now. Make time to plan and when you are planning do that with all your attention but once the plan is made enact it with all your attention as well.

Once we have stopped squandering the now we can begin living in it:

Use all your senses: Often in an attempt to remove distractions from our lives we tune out our senses. We don't pay attention to the sounds around us or to the smells, the textures or the taste of our food. If we are to fully live in the now we must constantly be experiencing the now in every way we have.

Listen to your mind: We often worry about being distracted but in the right now there are no distractions. There are simply things that your brain finds relevant and things your brain does not. For example as I write this I can see the pizza box sitting on the counter where I left it last night. I know these needs to be cleaned up. I could see it as a distraction or I could listen to my mind and get up and throw it away now or I could see the example and work it in to my post. Counting this as a distraction would be wrong since that would mean I would tune out part of my awareness of my environment diminishing my experience of the right now. Getting up and cleaning up right now is a reasonable response however allowing the interruption does not allow us to move smoothly from one now to the next. Instead by including the example and acknowledging that the cleaning must be done I respond to the worries my brain has and progress with the task of the now. Most often the things that catch your eye are the things that are important to you; the things that once dealt with will bring a measure of peace, satisfaction and accomplishment to your life. When we don't listen to our minds we are more prone to pouring effort in to tasks that will have little impact on our lives.

Now is all we have this it the only time and the only place we may have an impact on our world, on our life and on the course of history.

Editing Project: Commitments