Envision The Vision: A Present Beyond The Present

Hello and welcome to another episode of Words With Myself.

It's a common phrase to hear people say, live today like today was your last day. And I think what that concept is trying to get at is to be present, to live today intentionally, to not just let the time slip by doing what you always do and falling into the same patterns and routines and habits, but instead consciously be aware of how you are spending your time and use it very wisely.

But I think this phrase conveys the message in an inaccurate way, where people will think of that as in like, I only have one day and I know that I'm going to die tomorrow. So I'm going to spend today doing whatever I want.

And of course, if you kind of try and apply that to your life or to your everyday ethos you're going to kind of just do whatever you want every day and not have any regard for the future you'll dispense with goals and plans and even things like brushing your teeth or looking after your health because those things are not important if I'm not going to live tomorrow it's just about getting the best day ever and having the best feeling ever without any kind of regard for the future and this

is how a lot of people think of presence being is living in a way where you're always focused on now but never planning for the future never having goals or ambitions to dispense with responsibilities or obligations but that's not what being present is about it's not about forgetting that the future exists or thinking of how to spend the future and treating it as if it's not going to be there. It's actually just to do what you're doing in a way that is completely focused on the here and now.

So if you're doing something like cooking. Your attention, your focus, your thoughts are on that cooking. You are intentionally trying to be precise while you're cutting the onions. You are measuring very accurately. You are intentional with what you are doing and you're taking great care in what you do. Just like the samurai sensei who is taking care of his bonsai tree and pruning the branches perfectly to sculpt this masterpiece.

And he's doing so in a way that is completely present, completely focused on the task at hand. He is in the here and now. And that's what it means. You can go for a walk down the street and you can have a thousand things running through your head. You've got to take the kids to school or you've got to cook dinner or you've got to go to work or you've got to think about a meeting or whatever it is that's

going on in your head. and you can kind of arrive at your destination and not have taken any part of the walk-in. You didn't notice that the sun was shining and that spring has brought all kinds of new flowers and blossoms on the trees.

You didn't notice that somebody tried to smile at you to get your attention or that there was somebody in need of help because you are wrapped up in your own world and this is subtracting from the presence of what you're doing and this affects us in 90% of what we're doing, if not all of it. Some people might never have a moment of true presence where they are focused solely on the task at hand. They are focused on the here and now.

They are not worried about what's to come and they are not dwelling on what has happened.

Moments like these are few and far between and it's actually why people gravitate towards hobbies and especially extreme activities because when you're doing something that requires a lot of adrenaline it also requires a lot of concentration and focus and this can allow people to be present in what they're doing by putting their mind under such stress that it almost singles something out as so important and so needing a focus that everything else gets drowned out it's unlikely that you're

going to think about what's for dinner and what to do after this when you're in the middle of a cage fight you're focused solely on the threat that's right in front of you and your whole body your whole mind is focused on preservation but even then it's still easy to come out of the present moment you might be thinking during a fight what if i lose you know oh my god i might lose this or i'm not good enough your mind start racing off with all of these doubts and worries

and all of a sudden you are out of the flow state you're out of the present moment. So even when the stakes are very high, even when we know that the consequences of not being present in this moment are. Detrimental to our health and success of what we want to do, even then it's hard to stay present. It's hard to not let your mind drift, even under extreme circumstances.

So on the everyday, day-to-day, when you're just going about, you know, you're getting your coffee or you're going to work or you're going on the train and you're just living your life, think how easy it is for your mind to wander, for your mind to be elsewhere and missing the whole life that you are experiencing. And if you're not being intentional, if you are only living in the past or the future, then you don't exist at all because the past isn't real and the future isn't real.

All that is is a memory or an idea it's not truth the only thing that you can say for certain is that you are here and now the memories can be false the ideas can be wrong so all you can guarantee is what is around you all there is to do is what you're doing right now and if you want to do something different or you're not happy with what you're doing you must change what you're doing now.

You must make different choices. You must change what you are doing to align with who you are and what you want to do. And it might be a case where you say, well, it's not that easy. I can't just change. I can't change because I have all of these responsibilities and things that I have to do. You know, I need to eat and I need to pay the bills and all this kind of stuff.

So it's not so simple as to change and that's where you say okay so what can you do right now that helps you get along the way let's say you're not happy with your job and you want to do something different well you can't just quit and do something different you're right there are practical limitations to that but you can plan, You can theorize. You can study. You can generate ideas. You can write things down. You can bring things to life. You can work on a process that slowly builds over time.

There are things that you can do right now that will help you for the things that you want to do later. And that's what it means. It doesn't mean to dispense with plans or ambitions. It doesn't mean to get rid of all your goals and just live for today as if it's your only day. It means if you're going to do something and you know that you're not happy, but you can't change it, then be here and now and plan.

Be intentional about what you're doing. You're not happy with where you are. So how are you going to get to where you want to go?

What does that vision look like? if you can sit there and imagine your future self and what you'd be doing and the kind of experiences that you'd be having and how you would feel in those moments what can you do now that aligns with that vision it might be that you say well i imagine myself as someone really strong and really capable really fit well then the answer is the thing that you have to do here and now is to exercise

and to put a regime together and maybe plan as to how you're going to achieve that state and then start implementing that plan. But you can be perfectly present throughout all of that. It doesn't mean that you're living in the future if you're present here and now thinking about the future. As long as you are present at the task at hand. I know what I'm going to do now. I know how I'm going to spend my time here and now.

I want to put together an idea or a plan of how I want my future to be and really be focused and intentional on that task. And then once you've got an idea of where you want to go, you can put a plan together and you'd be really focused and intentional while drawing up that plan and thinking of all the steps. And then you carry out the plan and you follow the steps and you're really focused and intentional and present throughout every one of the steps.

And that's perfectly fine. The idea is that we want to get out of this habit of habits, of patterns, of just doing what we have always done because we've always done it. Getting out of the rinse and repeat cycle where we're doing the same things, we're making the same decisions, we're making the same choices. Because nothing changes like that. Or it does, but maybe not in the ways that we wanted to change.

If you want something, if you have goals or ambitions or you want a certain experience in life or you just want to grow, you have to be intentional about it. Otherwise, you will.

Things will still change, things will still grow but you'll feel like they're not growing or happening in the way that you want them to because you have no intention without a clear vision you can't possibly take clear action to get there you need to formulate your vision so that it is crystal clear in your mind so that you know exactly what it takes to get there if you want to be a successful business person and you imagine what that person is then a

good strong leader they communicate clearly they're decisive they take action where it's needed they look.

After themselves they look after their people they're in shape and you're envisioning that person well how are you going to get there by doing what they would do you know what they would do you know what it takes to get there it might just be a case that you don't want to do the work or it's out of your comfort zone but if that's where you want to go you have to do the work today that the person of tomorrow would do that idea that you have that concept that vision of yourself in the

future you have to make the decisions and do the things today to get to that place and it sounds simple it sounds obvious but it's not people think well I want to get somewhere but I don't know how to get there but if you think about the vision and you clearly get it down in your mind as to how that would look what kind of person would I be if I had what I wanted? What kind of decisions would I make? What things would I do? How would I behave? How would I talk?

What would I be interested in? Ask these questions of yourself and once you have some ideas on the answers, you can then begin to take the action that's needed and with all of those actions, with every action, with every minute of every day, you are intentional you are deliberate in what you are doing and you are living present here and now thank you for listening.