The Power of NOW

 

Two weeks away gave me a lot of time to think and be still in my mind and listen to the true desires of my heart. I think so many of us work so hard to be happy in our future, when this happens, or we accomplish that thing. 20lbs from now, when we get the promotion, when we sell one more house, exceed the next deadline, finish that degree, or find the right person, then we can do this or that, when we meet that next goal that we have strummed up in our mind all will be right in the world. There is nothing wrong with striving for more in our lives or having goals. It is just sometimes on our journey to that; we forget to be happy NOW.

I read a book years ago called the Power of Now by Eckart Tolle. We need to take more time to appreciate what we have in the very moment. The Power of Now shows you that every minute you spend worrying about the future or regretting the past is a minute lost, because really all you must live in is the present, the now, and gives you actionable strategies to start living every minute as it occurs.

This is such a great practice for us to accept all the things that happen to us on our journey. Some of it is self-inflicted, we have free will, some of it is completely beyond our control and the only thing we can control is our reaction to those uncontrollable circumstances. We have so many choices on the journey. Some will be good, some bad, some learning experiences and some amazing memories. We as humans need to strive to enjoy as many minutes of our lives as we can, while we can.

From my experiences with so much close to me death in my life,  I can reassure you that life is a gift that we are given every day, but our days are numbered, and we have no idea when our time is up. We all have a time, death is inevitable. Worrying about it isn't going to accomplish much but rob us from living life NOW. We can plan all we want but sometimes those plans don’t quite work out the way we hoped. We need to make every minute count when we can. We are human and emotions can get the best of us, but we can come back to center and re-focus or efforts on striving to be happy in the moment instead of waiting for the right moment to be happy.

Several weeks ago, I went to a mastermind and the speaker talked about an “enough” number. I have never really thought about this before, but it really hit me when he said it. I do have one. Too me an enough number means, what are you willing to accept or take as your monetary accumulation to have “enough” to live on to live with in your means and be happy. I am sure that everyone has one even if they haven't defined it. This is the number that justifies how much you work verses how much you play or how much you are willing to sacrifice time away from your family or time that you want to focus on spending with your family where working a little bit more is too much of a risk because you are giving up your family time in the present. Like I have stressed before, we don’t know when our time is up, so stop working so hard to make your future spectacular. Sacrifice now for rewards later IS NOT PROMISED. Enjoy NOW while you have it.

I know that I am always striving for more but being happy with what I have accomplished thus far and what I currently have now is way more important to my well being and the example to my child then waiting to be happy or to do the things that I want until some future date that I may never have the chance to see. My goal is to complain as little as possible, I definitely can’t say not to complain ever, that is an expectation that I don’t think any of us can accomplish.

Hug your family more, tell them you love them, don’t be afraid to go for what you want, stop beating around the bush,  stop waiting for the perfect moment, (there probably will never be one)  be happy for what you have now, take what you have and make what you want, be an example of a satisfied person to the younger generation by being grateful every single day for all that you have and remember it is ok to strive for more, but don’t work so hard for a better future you lose sight of the amazing things you currently have. You may or may not believe you have a destination in your future. A Heaven that you will one day be welcomed to. Whether you do or you don’t, you are currently on a journey… ENJOY it… the good, the bad, the hiccups and the triumphs, you deserve to be HAPPY… NOW.