If five birds are sitting on a wire and one of them decides to fly away, how many are still left? The answer is five. One bird’s “decision” to fly away did not remove it from the wire.
We all know people just like this bird. These people continually “decide” to become more involved in church, lose weight, manage their money, build a relationship, etc. Yet they do nothing to turn their decisions into action. They are living a life on auto-pilot versus a life on purpose.
When you die, there will be two dates on your tombstone: the date of your birth and the date of your death. Those two dates will be separated by a DASH. It is this dash that represents your life. Are you truly Living Your DASH on purpose?
Living in the Moment
Living Your Dash demands living in the moment by seizing moments in time, utilizing the gifts and talents you possess, and taking immediate and decisive action on the things that are important to you. “Deciding to” does not necessarily equate action. Even nature teaches you’ll never be a butterfly if you can’t stop being a caterpillar. The worm must take action to weave a cocoon in order to transform from slimy fish bait into a miraculously beautiful butterfly. Imagine a couple of caterpillars looking up at a soaring butterfly and saying, “You’ll never get me up on one of those things.”
The caterpillars on the ground haven’t realized their potential, they’ve become fearful of the unknown, they see the world only from where their past has brought them, and they have trouble anticipating future opportunities. It’s not that the bird in the first illustration and the stalled caterpillars in the second don’t have the potential; they just are not living in the moment.
Living in the moment are those perfectly balanced instances in the middle of a regular day or event that we would define as really living. These moments are actually very rare. Consider these five principles and one law of living in the moment. Each in its own way advances the life we were meant to live.
Principle 1: You are either living YOUR life or someone else’s. Our society places beliefs on who we should become, how we should act, what we should buy and even how we should dress. Once we make up our mind that we are here to live our own life and not the life our parents, friends, teachers and acquaintances then we can live our own life based on the talents, gifts and passions we know to be.
Principle 2: The people that enter your life are the right people... the good and the bad. Those troublesome people are important reminders of wrong directions, ideas and philosophies. Those few exceptional people remind us they cared enough to be a part of our life. Either situation makes them precisely the right people.
Principle 3: Whatever happens…happens. Accepting this focuses attention and appreciation on the present moment, thereby excluding all of the might-have-beens, should-have-beens and what-ifs. "What is" is the only thing present at the moment. Appreciate that!
Principle 4: Whatever happens is the right time. This is an admonition to take things as they are and when they happen. This is living in the moment and a cardinal prerequisite of Living Your Dash.
Principle 5: When it’s over it’s over. This is basically the flip side of the preceding one. Everything has a beginning, middle and end. All three must be appreciated, most particularly the end when it comes.
The one law is a strange one. It is called The Law of Two Feet. Stated succinctly, if at anytime you find yourself in a situation where you are neither learning nor contributing, use your two feet. Go somewhere else. Do something useful. Live Your Dash. Stay in the moment and don’t get stuck in the moment.
Living in the moment means leaving behind a life of societal status quo, which by definition is the accepted way of doing things. The path of least resistance can be attractive. But by living in the moment you do precisely what you have been gifted to do…take action and therefore Live Your Dash.
© Doug Constant is an internationally recognized Life and Business Coach. Start Living Your Life on Purpose by calling 318-442-3510 or email to Doug@OnPoint-Learning.com for a FREE personality style assessment via fax or email and to arrange an appointment for a complementary 30 minute Life Coaching session.
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