It’s the one in front of you. But yet so often we find ourselves dwelling in the past; with its failures or the future; with its fears. Dr. Caroline Leaf, in her book, “Think Learn Succeed” writes: “We need to learn to savor the pleasure of the now and not just marinate in the misery of the past or imagine the grass will be greener in the future [but are never willing to step into it]. When we choose to truly tune in to the now -to see, listen, feel, move, taste, and inhale the present, using all our senses to soak up the minute beauty of the moment- we enhance our thinking and thereby enhance our ability to learn and succeed in life.”
Thinking about this quote in context of hiking; the applicability of it; hits home in the longer hikes I’ve done over the past year, especially with my Grand Canyon Rim 2 Rim hike. It’s starts with a nice 14 mile trail that drops 5800 feet. Getting to the bottom, you start to see the top of the south rim 9 mile away with its 4800 feet of gain. And there is no other magic carpet to get you there. At this point, I was only thinking about getting to the top and not taking in the beauty of the moment. Looking back now, I wasn’t savoring the pleasure of the moment, as I did do on the way down, but not at all on the way up. So many moments I missed because of my sole focus on getting out of the canyon. And it was the same for other longer hikes I did over the year; spending more time checking out my time instead of checking in with my surroundings. How I want to get back to “being in the moment” instead of just “doing the moment” with my hikes.
In our personal life, we also have those mountains that look too dauting to climb. For me it’s a house remodeling project that has become a mountain that I’m afraid to start climbing. Do I simply restore a water damaged office and laundry room back to its’ original condition or do I use this opportunity to create something much greater by knocking out some load bearing walls with a kitchen expansion and laundry room remodeling? The latter giving me the opportunity to “enhance my thinking and thereby enhance my ability to learn” [with also giving my sons practical home remodeling skills].
At work, the mountains are everywhere and so often we don’t “tune in to the now -to see, listen, feel, move, taste, and inhale the present”. Rather it becomes all about getting the “next thing done”, as we hurry to finish the present task. It needs to become a daily/hourly focus of staying present and “soaking up the minute beauty of the moment.”
How many of us have found ourselves waking up at 3 in the morning thinking about those mountains staring us in the face? Our minds are filled with the stress, fear, and anxiety of not knowing if we are going to be able to successful or what will happen if we fail. It’s like that baseball player coming to bat in the bottom of the ninth inning; down by one run with a team member on 2nd base. We can have that fear of never winning the game or we can step into the moment, inhale all that life has to give us and win the game in the moment. It all starts with savoring the pleasure of the moment and taking the next steps one step at a time. What moments are you going to savor and soak up today?
Al Andersen 