Gain a new perspective on how to be more "present" in each moment of life.
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Welcome to the Be Your Best Self Blog by Marsha Abbott.
"Who Would Have Thought?"
I am a doer. I get things done. My brain is usually ten steps ahead, preparing for the next thing to come with my endless “to-do” lists always front and center. And this trait of mine has really served me well over the years. But lately, I don’t feel like it is my friend anymore. Lately, it doesn’t seem to be helping me at all. Instead, it has now, unfortunately, become my nemesis.
Who would have thought?
I like to think of myself as organized. I know that I am pretty good at multitasking. And when there are lots of things to get done and so much to prepare for, well I am your girl! Throughout my whole life, I have been pretty proud of this trait. I always felt that I have been blessed to have it…until recently.
So what changed? How did my best quality turn into my worst quality?
It’s all about the technology and how advanced we have become in this world. Everything, and I mean everything, is now at our fingertips, and there is SOOO much to always get done. It’s this fast paced, advanced world that we live in today that has ultimately led to my demise.
So over the past few years, my husband has been noticing something that he will point out to me every now and then. And while I might shrug it off to him because that is what us wives tend to do, it has been weighing on my mind lately. I hate to admit when he is right, and I am wrong…but gosh…this is one of those times.
What my husband pointed out to me recently is that I always have to be doing something…every second of the day. Whether it be riding down the road where I find a few moments to check my emails or waiting at the doctor’s office where I am catching up on social media, or maybe it’s when we are on vacation where I tend to be googling the next thing we should do before we are even finished with the last adventure. He often reminds me that I never take the time to just look around and enjoy the scene in front of me…like a beautiful sky, or wild animals running the fields, or the amazing birds soaring through the air. He shares with me that I have a hard time living in the moment. And he is right, I don’t take the time to live in the moment. I look past each minute to see what should happen in the next minute to come.
Do you do this too? Do you feel busy and consistently have the need to execute your never ending “to-do” list? Have these traits gotten worse in the past decade or so? Has technology gotten so advanced that you are having a harder time enjoying the present? If so, then you too can sympathize with my new nemesis – my best and worst quality all wrapped into one.
Who would have ever thought it possible? How in the heck did we get here? And most importantly, how do we get better at living for today…at living for this minute instead of worrying about the next?
Because here is the problem with living like this: There is always something to plan for, to think about next, and to get done soon. So if we continue on this cycle, then it’s a fact we will never get “caught up”. It’s hard to get caught up in a world that is always throwing new things at us. So instead, all this cycle will do is stop us from ever really living in the moment…from ever really living for today.
So while we know the first step in learning to live in the present is to choose to make some changes in our life, the second step is harder. It’s figuring out exactly how to do it?
Let’s brainstorm some ideas together: I am going to start by turning off all my “notifications” on social media because for me, seeing those red bubbles popping up just make me feel like I have one more thing to check. The second thing I am going to change is that I am going to challenge myself for one day a week to live without my phone…to leave it home. That one might seem easy to some people, but for me it will be a challenge. And the last thing I am going to do is I am going to go for a ride with my husband and really look around to enjoy the beautiful scenery that surrounds me. It’s these small changes that I am going to make in order to see if it can make a larger impact in my life.
So what are you going to do? What is one thing you are going to change in your life to get better at being present…to be a better version of yourself?
I hope you will choose to take this next step with me…to learn to live in the present. Because the craziest part of it all is that when we are long gone someday, the “to-do” list will still be here. There will still be things to always get done or to check on. But what we will never get back are all of those moments where we really did get to enjoy life. So it’s time to start “living” and it’s time to stop “doing” with each extra moment in time that we are given.
Because truthfully, never in a million years did I think I would get to this point in my life. I never thought I would get to the point where I am not even living for today anymore. I never imagined it would get this bad…but it has… Who in the heck would have ever thought?
*For those of you struggling with something in life or have a topic of interest that you want me to talk about in this blog, email me at BeYourBestSelfBlog@gmail.com. Let’s work together to Be Our Best Selves!