Enjoying the Right Now
We all have goals for our lives. It may be as simple as wanting to go to a particular restaurant for dinner tonight or it may be as complex as establishing a business and making a million dollars in the next 5 years. However, we often get so focused on what we want for the future that we lose sight of where we are right now. We become so impatient for that desired future to arrive that we can’t enjoy our lives now. Over time, as we constantly look to the future, a consistent sense of dissatisfaction becomes our default experience.
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t have goals or a sense of what we want to do with our lives. Of course we need these, without them we wouldn’t accomplish much. However, in order to reach those goals, we need to know where we are right now. Just like your GPS system can’t tell you how to get to your destination until it figures out your current location, we can’t accurately plan for the future until we understand where we’re starting from, which is the here and now. Once we know what we are starting with, who is with us, our current state of mind, and why we want to get to that particular goal, then we can more easily plan the trip and arrive at our goal in the easiest and most enjoyable way possible.
There are many benefits to living in the moment and enjoying where we are right now. It reduces our stress, improves our outlook on life, and even enhances our relationships. When we can let go of the beliefs that we “should” be somewhere else or working on something else, we free ourselves to enjoy our lives more fully. My favorite saying is that “if you weren’t meant to be here right now, you wouldn’t be here.” This applies to all areas of our lives; relationships, work, school, home, etc. Having this mindset makes it so much easier to be patient and to be willing to put in the work to get where we want to go. As you plan your next activity for the day, or what you want to do this evening, be sure to take some time to appreciate where you are right now and how being here can help you get to where you want to go next.