Love the Adventure - The Power of Presence

You have probably heard an expression something along the lines of Life is a Journey - Enjoy the Ride.  I really do believe this and personally think it is important to move this out of the realm of bumper sticker wisdom and make it a part of your waking consciousness.

Every personal growth coach or self help guru on the planet will tell you it is important to set goals.  I tell my coaching clients and audiences the same thing,  encouraging them to set goals within the various dimensions of their lives in which they find value.  This is how I define wealth, a more holistic approach beyond the traditional financial perspective of wealth. This is important as it focuses our energies and intention on something we define as important to us.  There are several practical reasons for adopting this philosophy.

• The pursuit, the journey, the time we have in “getting there” is much longer than that brief moment when and where the actual goal is attained.  If the joy in your life were predicated on the percentage of time you were rejoicing in the achievement of goals rather than the pursuit, you would not be happy very often.
• The actual achievement of the goal is often anticlimactic.  This happens because either it does not fully meet our expectations or, even when it does, it is gone in an instant.  Yes, there is an afterglow if you will and great value in that peak experience that contributed to your quality of life.  But it is now in the past.
• You never get there.  What kind of life is it that makes your contentment contingent on achieving this or that goal?  Do you succeed in such endeavors 100% of the time?  NOT!  The journey is often a lesson; we don’t reach the goal we were seeking because the universe has other ideas about what is truly on your path.  This recalls Edison’s comment about “failing” with so many variations on the electric light bulb: “I didn’t fail: I discovered 2000 (filaments) that didn’t work.”

All of this comes back to being present in life, now.  Bring enthusiasm to the moment, to the path you are on, day by day.  If you are reading this blog (you have a computer or access to one, you can pay for that internet connection, you can read, etc, etc.), you have much to be thankful for and it will benefit you greatly to be in this frame of mind as much of the day as you can.

Live now …. your quality of life is rarely going to be contingent on the next big deal you nail down, the next great relationship you don’t yet have or the New You -2009 that is 23 pounds lighter.

Don’t wait for the next memo or email to tell you what to do.  Get out there and do it.  Fail. Learn.  Fall down 7 times, get up 8.

OK?