Hi friends,

This week I want to write about how many of us are living and preparing for the future without truly appreciating the present moment.

For the majority of my life, I’ve been a planner. I’m always thinking about what I’m going to do next and how I can prepare for it to make things go smoothly. This could mean setting out clothes the night before work, meal prepping, or scoping out traffic patterns for the next day’s commute.

We tell ourselves that we are preparing for the future and that once we accomplish “X,” we can finally settle down and be content. But the harsh reality is that we will never be satisfied in the future if we can’t find fulfillment in the present moment.

Life is just a succession of present moments leading up to an inevitable death. If we can accept the fact that living for future satisfaction is not realistic, we can start to take steps toward appreciating our current situation.

One way to become more present is through practicing mindfulness—a term that’s been hijacked by many wellness and spiritual gurus, but in its essence, it’s about opening up conscious awareness and noticing sensations and thoughts that arise spontaneously. I’ve been meditating consistently for the past few years and can say that it has changed the way I experience life, and has made me more appreciative of my surroundings.

The goal of a mindfulness or meditation practice is not to make you zen and emotionless, but to make you aware of the present moment and to notice thoughts and sensations without getting wrapped up in them. I’ve noticed that feelings of anger and anxiety still arise in my daily life, but the duration that I experience these unpleasant states is dramatically lower than before I became a consistent meditator.

Happiness and dissatisfaction are incompatible. So, if you want to be happy in your daily life, stop putting off life enjoyment to a future date when “you have things figured out,” and start appreciating your life for what it is right now. We don’t know when our last day on Earth will be, but we can savor each day as if it were our last.

I’ll end with a quote from author James Clear who said, “People often think that something "far off" will make them happy. That moving to a new place or getting a different job or meeting someone new will change how they feel. But happiness will always be withheld if you believe it is somewhere else. The secret is to find happiness in the people and places that are close to you. See the beauty in the things that are nearby." 

Until next week,

Kevin