Your Only Time Is Now
Posted on May 20, 2008
Filed Under Branding You
We’re conditioned socially to set our focus on the future and to believe that our past experiences dictate its outcome. It’s easy to get stuck in an internal dialogue with oneself about what we wish we “would’ve, should’ve or could’ve” done differently.
“If I’d just had better parenting,” or “If I’d had more money” are common refrains from individuals looking to explain away unwanted circumstances in life and business. And yet, there are just as many inspiring stories of people who have overcome their challenges and accomplished their heart’s desire.
A critical distinction to make during the process of Branding You, or any other endeavor, is that you can’t access the past. You can think about it, talk about and even obsess about it – but you can’t impact it. The same goes for the future.
You can only act in the present moment. Accomplishments occur in successive instances of Now. There is only right now, followed by another moment of right now.
I invite you to get past an intellectual understanding of this discussion and to apply what I’m saying experientially. If you really get this you’ll experience a new sense of freedom in your life and in your career.
If you think you’re limited by yesterday’s bank balance it will shape what you see as possible for your finances right now and you will act accordingly. But if you stand in the present, with a clean slate, anything is possible.
Some will hear this as pie-in-the-sky positive thinking — but it is not. It has nothing to do with positive thinking. It’s neutral thinking. Starting from zero, nothing or “no thing” in the way. You declare a future based on no evidence, like John Kennedy did when he pledged that we would place a man on the moon within a decade.
The way you use language is always your best barometer for how your life and your business affairs are going to turn out. Whether you recognize it or not, you are always declaring something about the future. And, get this, you’ll always be right. If you say something is impossible, you’re right. But when you declare something as being possible you take ownership of your results. Listen to your words. What are you declaring about your personal brand, your relationships and your life? Are you playing small for some well-justified reason that is tied to the past? Let that conversation go. It no longer serves you.
For more on this vital subject, I’d recommend the metaphysical classic “The Power of Now,” by Eckhart Tolle. He is also featured in a series of webinars on Oprah.com, discussing “A New Earth,” his latest book.
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