RMC Weekly Blog: The Present Is A Gift
We live in a time where our brain has to deal with many stimuli, some from outside and some that come from our own subconscious. If our brain was a computer it would have short-circuited all ready and would need a reboot. This bio computer luckily has its reboot whenever we sleep. However, due to the overwhelming amount of stimuli and chemicals ingested we are in a bit of danger because the quality of our sleep gets affected.
We rationally can all agree that the only time we can do anything is in the present moment. It is important to realize this if we want to get ahead in any situation. How come we are so preoccupied with so many things? The pressures of living have become ever-increasing and will only get more. Unless we do something about it at the only time that really matters, the now.
“Now” is the only moment we can do anything. Yet we spend most of our energy on things that might happen or things we regret in the past. As if they somehow can make or manifest anything in our lives. They can not, and we know this. Even knowing this we are still compulsively allocating time and energy to an occurrence that can never produce results. Why do we continue giving so much of our attention to this? Fear of the future can be one reason, for we deal with unnatural levels of the search for perfection, to be mistake-free and have everyone’s admiration. Fear that an old behavior or mistake will ruin our present course of success. Yes, that is a thing! Fear of success is a real thing.
When we have gone through a life-threatening situation we all of a sudden realize how the now is infinitesimally more important than any other time in one’s life.
How do we train our minds to favor the now and bathe in the comfort of knowing that every focussed and attentive decision made in the now improves the quality of our lives? Sometimes in a small way and sometimes it can be life-altering, but it only happens when we live in the now.
We, at Rolo Mental Coaching, often see our high-performance clients dealing with this very battle. Their talent, handwork, and planning should give them results but instead, they are faced with sudden blockage of skills at a crucial moment in their competition, or a lack of belief in one’s abilities to deal with high-pressure moments.
We all have seen and heard it when we watch championships on tv when the announcers mention a blocked state of mind when an athlete misses a penalty or fails to close a match on a match-point that would make them a champion. The world is watching and the pressure is rising. Failure is the only thing on our minds but it is not real until we let our fears make them a reality.
When we train high-performance clients we remind them about how children face performance or anything dealing with accomplishing any feat. Do children really care about winning or are they just enjoying the experience of doing the task?
There are numerous mental tools and skills we can teach to get back to the present moment, however, they will only work when applied in the now with awareness. When we do apply our skills to stay focussed on doing the task, and sometimes it is a task we have done a thousand times before, we will have a chance to complete the action with success. Doing and thinking are the complete opposite at this moment in time. Doing will give an opportunity to succeed and thinking will manifest chances of failure. It is a small difference that can alter to very course of one’s life. That is why we prefer to give the now a lot more attention than the future or the past. One is not here yet and the other has already happened and on both occasions, we can not do anything about it NOW.
Mindfulness exercises are helpful to teach the mind to prefer the present through meditation but there are many other tools available when we do not have the luxury of getting in a comfortable position and being one with ourselves.
We trust we have piqued your interest. With what you have learned here today, what are you going to do now that will enhance your success and well-being?
