Thursday | May 24, 2012
Living in the Moment
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By
Sanyika Calloway Boyce
26 January 2005
For the six years of my life between the ages of 17 and 23 I spent much of my time looking forward to "the next big thing." It seemed like no matter where I was in life; there was always somewhere better to be.
When I was in high school I couldn’t wait to be in college, when I was in college I wanted to be in the corporate world. When I was single I wanted to be dating, when I was dating I wanted to be married. So when I finally "arrived" where I thought I wanted to be there seemed to be this empty feeling that came along with the "hurry up and wait" way that I’d lived my life.
I still have much to look forward to. But I also have much to take in, as I commit to experiencing every moment of life as it unfolds. We’ve become so conditioned to strive for the place that we want to be that we’ve lost the pleasure of basking in the moment and living it to the fullest.
Often as a new year begins we are pressured to make resolutions and commitments to improving some aspects of our lives. As noble and sometimes necessary as that may be, I would challenge you to approach this year slightly differently. My challenge is for you to live – not in grand fashion or for the big wins – but in small and quiet moments of simple pleasures and silent victories.
Just about five years ago, a wildly popular song by Lee Ann Womack hit the airwaves, the title was simply, "I Hope You Dance" and the words captured the feelings of hope for a life that is what it could be when you have the courage to live the 24 hours that you’re given to the fullest.
For me, the double chorus of the song was beautifully arranged and summed up all the meaning of living in the moment.
I hope you dance
(Time is a wheel in constant motion)
I hope you dance
(Always rolling us along)
I hope you dance
(Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder)
I hope you dance
(Where those years have gone)
Sometimes to make it where you want to go, and to be content when you get there you have to anticipate the journey as much as the destination.
Before taking life by the horns, take a moment and get real with the one person that really knows you best – you.
No matter the goals, whatever your path, here are five questions to ask yourself in 2005 as you strive to make the most of your life.
- What is one thing that I can do now that will make this moment count in my life five years from now?
- What would it take for me to become my own biggest fan?
- How can I value who I am as I strive to become who I want to be?
- If this was the last year of my life, what would I want my life to say about me?
- What or who does my happiness depend on?
I wish for you all the best and look forward to sharing a year of tips, information, articles and even a few ideas that will help you reach higher, go further and dance to the beat of a year well spent and the life you’ve always imagined.
Your life is now…get up and dance!
Sanyika Calloway Boyce, FinancialFitnessCoach.com.
Copyright © 2005. YOUNG MONEY®
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I can empathize with your new client. As a child, as for many years as an adult, I had no real confidence in myself, regardless of accomplishments. When I was a child, my parents tried to teach me the lesson of the ‘Little Engine That Could.’ As you recall, it could because it though it could. Whenever they told me that, I say: “but I don’t think I can”, as that was a far as it ever went.
When I was in college I read a science fiction novel in which the main character (if I recall, I don’t really remember the details) was consumed by fear. So he learned this small poem, which I memorized and said it over and over to myself:
“I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.”
Recently I looked it up. It is from a book by Frank Herbert in the Dune series. Regardless of its origins, it really helped me; it helped that I memorized it and repeated it to myself a million times a day.
Well, there are other things that helped my in conquering fear and in ability to be confident, but that was one of the first steps.