by Kittle’s Eric Easter says this is the only moment and it deserves your full attention
This moment is all there is. This moment is where we are, and life is. We can be and life can be nowhere else. Yet we spend so much of our short time on this planet trying to live in moments yet to come or moments that have come and gone. Remaining tied to what has happened and trying to know what has yet to happen creates Noise. And like all Noise, this keeps us from maximizing the potential of this moment, from Being Our Best.
We are designed and built to respond to whatever life brings one moment at a time. We are and life is best when we accept and embrace this moment as it is, and do not ask more of it than it has to give. When we resist this, we find ourselves filled with fear, anxiety and worry. Our mind is cluttered, distracted. So often it is filled with thinking of other moments at the expense of this one. It is no secret that we are lousy at multitasking — study after study bears this out. Yet we let the Noise make so much of what we do multi-tasking. Noise takes our eye off the ball. And as anyone who has played most any sport knows we inevitably fall short. We are less than we would otherwise be.
Opportunities to stray from this moment and go deeply into the Noise abound. There’s an important presentation, concern for loved ones, financial worries, soft business, what others think of us, the future, the past and so on. There is much that has happened to agonize over. There is much to come that we want to know now. There are so many reasons for letting the Noise have its way that it can become habit, a way of life. It can become a steady state, our normal.
When we try to make ourselves and life something we are not, to try to make this moment more than it is, we unthinkingly leave this moment behind and enter the world of Noise. This is not natural. It may feel normal, familiar, even comfortable, out of habit, but it is not being who we really are. The only place we can be who we really are, let what we really want, think, feel happen, Be Our Best is this moment, as it is. When we choose to try to make this moment something other than it is, we make ourselves less than we really are.
Of all the inestimable moments that have and will happen in our life, this is the only moment that is happening now. It deserves our full attention. All the others have happened or will happen. Focusing ourselves, our attention, our awareness on this moment only, with the synergistic sum of all that we are, is the path out of the Noise and to Being Our Best. There is no Noise where we are — in this moment. Whatever life brings, by filtering out the fear, worries, anxiety of what has and might happen — the Noise — we are left living this moment as it is, as we are and at our best. When we are at our best, we make better choices. Better choices today mean better results today and tomorrow. For today’s decisions provide tomorrow’s foundation for our choices and results.
Learning when we are in the Noise and when we are not takes practice. Cutting through the Noise to see who we really are can be difficult. Noise, out of habit, can become so common that we believe it is part of who we really are. It isn’t. It has been taught, learned, taken as gospel for reasons particular to each of us. The good news is that what is taught, what is learned can be untaught, unlearned. And the path back to what is natural is more easily traveled than the one that is unnatural.
Noticing when the Noise gets louder is an opportunity to learn what drives it. For example, we may become more anxious, stressed in certain situations and our response is to try to control what cannot be controlled. Understanding this futile effort and its source is a big step forward to returning to who we really are, returning to this moment. An amplified reaction may sprout from a low-level hum that is always there, so it feels normal. Being honest and accepting of what really is, our personal Noise, puts us on the path to a better life and Being Our Best, in this moment. It moves us toward a life with less and less Noise. Less Noise means we are becoming better at Being Our Best and better at living in this moment only.
Noticing this moment only. Not thinking past it. Not leaving it behind to try to know a moment yet to come or be tied to a moment that has passed, brings clarity. Amazingly, this leaves us free of fear, worry and anxiety for we are no longer creating it by trying to make ourselves and life something we are not. Instead, we are immersed in this moment, what it really is and embracing it. Being Our Best.
A clear, uncluttered mind whose attention is only on this moment is a powerful force. It is us being who we really are, letting what we really want, think and feel happen. The Noise has stopped, so we are Being Our Best. No more needing to know what will happen before it does. No more wishing what has happened had not. This yields better results, a better life and the wonderful quiet, the calm that flows naturally from within us when we are being who we really are. This IS what life is all about. And it only happens in this moment … and then the next.
Stop the Noise. Be Your Best.
More to come.
