If you can distinguish the difference between when you are fully being in the here and now as opposed to having the effects of living in the past then you have the keys to personal effectiveness and achievement!

How do you do this?

Let me start with an analogy.

Remember when you were a child and your earliest walks in the park? You may remember that during those walks everything around you was so clear, the beauty of nature, the unexplored and the great unknown… made you come so alive and in the here and now…  

Then the next few times you weren’t quite so alive because you got the idea that you’ve ‘seen those things in the park before…’ Then the times after that you got even less alive than previously for the same reasons as before… and so on. By the time you reach adulthood you don’t pay that much attention to the beauty of the surroundings while walking in the park… well and truly getting the idea that you’ve seen it all before!

By having the ‘seen it all before’ you no longer become truly present, alive and in to life… 

However, something can happen that allows you to see things in a different light. It might be that you’re in such a good mood, or it’s a beautiful carefree morning, or for no reason whatsoever… you suddenly find yourself blissfully in the here and now while walking in the park. Notice this when it happens!

Because you’re in this state you look around and notice things you hadn’t seen before. The shades of green on a grassy verge, the leaf venation on the different trees come right into your attention in the moment, then you distinguish the different birds surrounding… You hear things that you may not have been aware of before…

In other words you realize you had not ‘seen it all before’ because living in the here and now means seeing some of the infinite details in things you hadn’t observed before.

Now we can take this further. It’s not just about seeing things in the park.  It’s about life in general. When making an ongoing commitment to being in the here and now you have the keys to personal effectiveness. It is an opportunity for achievement because:

1. It allows creative moments to happen.

For example, when fully present, you see a project you have on the go in a different light which allows you to bring something new into existence and into being.

2. Gives rise to realization or insight.

Insights or realizations in the moment enable you to go on to achieve things that you would not have been able to do without those realizations or insights.

3. Recognise something new

You may observe something new that was not distinguished before (attention to detail) by others. By observing something new it could mean seeing things in a whole new light… and go into a whole new direction.

4. Just be in the bliss and the beauty and benefit what life has to offer!

5. Creating a clear head without thought or distraction can allow the self to be peaceful, calm and healthy…

An example of this is in the benefits of meditation as a commitment to being in the here and now.