Presence

When your mind feels crowded, it isn’t because life is too big it’s because you’re trying to hold tomorrow, yesterday, and every “what if” all at once. The overwhelm isn’t in the work itself; it lives in the story your mind tells about everything that hasn’t been done yet.

Most of the pressure you feel is imaginary weight. The project isn’t towering in front of you it’s towering in your thoughts. The moment you return to now, the mountain becomes a single step.

Presence doesn’t demand effort. It asks for permission. Permission to release the noise, to stop rehearsing the future, and to meet this moment as it is. When you choose one small action and give it your full attention, calm naturally follows. Not because everything is solved but because you are finally here.

Progress doesn’t come from rushing. It comes from honoring the present moment enough to stay with it.

Reflective question

If everything else could wait, what is the one thing in front of you right now that deserves your full presence?

Go do your thing.

This was something that my friend Kevin texted to me.  

“100 years from now, 7 billion people alive today will be dead.

Your worst fear is insignificant.

Go do your thing.”

I like it.

How you see it makes all the difference.

“There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” -William Shakespeare.

Something happens in your life.  You think it’s bad.  So it’s bad.  

What is “bad”?  That means it hurts your emotions, what you think of it and others, and even what you think of yourself, now and into the future.

Now that same thing could happen to someone else, and they see it as neutral or good.  

The difference is in how they see it – how they are processing what happened.  

Sure, maybe your hopes and expectations were that the event did NOT happen, so that it happened goes counter to what you wanted.  But what if you adjust your expectations?  What if you see how the event is opening a new opportunity, or could be a stepping stone to something else that will be good? 

What if you just put your happiness ahead of it all and refuse to see it as “bad”?

Theory is easy.  Practice is something else.

I remind myself to practice.

My Doctor is often Chat GPT

I want to tell you about an experience I had three days before I left for the race of a lifetime in Saudi Arabia.  I woke up at 4 am and when I got up I was acutely dizzy and almost fell down.  It lasted 30 seconds.  Then, when I went to lie down again, it happened again – my computer was spinning out of control.  I was freaked out.  It was still happening in the morning.  Just 20 seconds of that you feel nauseous for a day.  OMG.  What is going on?  

I went to the walk-in clinic, but there was a very long wait the day after Christmas, and I didn’t want to sit in a waiting room full of sick people before my two-week trip.  I left. 

I called Ear doctors and therapists and had to leave messages since it was a Saturday.

I explained my symptoms to ChatGPT, and it was on it.  Vertigo.  It is caused by a floating crystal, which is supposed to be in one part of your ear, and gets into the semicircular tubes.  When you move your head, it slowly floats around in circles, sending signals to your brain that you are spinning when you are not.  Amazingly, someone created a fix you can do at home called the “Eppley Maneuver,” when you move your head in a series of positions to get the crystal to go around the circle and drop back into the place it is supposed to be.  Kinda of like rotating a snow globe to get the snow to go around the circle.

Well, I did it.  I almost puked like it said I would, but it fixed it!  I had residual dizziness for a day like it said I would.  Victory.

The next morning at 6 am, it happened again.  I repeated the maneuver.  Same results.  Chat GPT said that only 50% of people get it 100% with one try, and said what I was experiencing was perfectly normal.  It explained everything exactly.  It was amazing.

I have used ChatGPT to explain what was wrong and treatment options a bunch of times before.  I think this is great for our healthcare system, where it is hard to get an appointment anywhere, and you have to wait a long time.  When you do go, often you get referred to someone else, or “try this drug”, or see if it clears up, and if not, come back.  Sometimes you do not have to go to the doctor, and if you do, it will tell you where to go and how urgent it is.

One time I took a picture of my foot and pointed to a spot and told it what was going on, and it explained what was wrong exactly.

Did I mention it was free?

I am sure many of you out there have more experience than I do with Chat GPT giving health or medical advice.  

For me, it was a lifesaver just as I was preparing for my big trip.

On putting it all together and collecting wisdom

Everything that happens to you, everything you caused to happen, and everything that happened, whether you liked it or not, is valuable to you.

Each relationship, event, high, low, and experience offers specific knowledge and wisdom.  

Rather than wish it were different, embrace it as useful, and put the pieces together in a way only you can.

Sure there may be holes that need to be filled, but that you can control.  It will never be perfect, but it will always be you.

And as each day goes by, you can go in the direction your heart wants you to go, and make it all even better still.

There will be ups and downs, but that’s what being human is about.

Don’t make it harder on yourself with regret or blame or wishing the past was different.  You had to be there to be here.  Use it for good now.

Don’t try to make the world perfect to be happy.  Focus on your world and how you see it.

Just know that it will all be ok.

“Effortless”

We all see masters at their craft make things look so easy, like it just comes natural for them.

But everything that seems effortless is almost always the result of an investment of effort so exceptional, it appears non-existent to the observer.

To be one of these people who does extraordinary things “effortlessly”, you need to be committed, focused, and disciplined for a very long period of time in perfecting something you had the seeds for in the first place.

What is that for you?

Master your reactions

Too often, we respond quickly and with a lot of emotion to things.  We wind up making things worse.

Pause before you respond.  

If it’s serious, pause for at least one sleep.

Ask, “will my response make this better and get me closer to what I want?”

Or will your response add to your problems and build even more resistance?  

Observe your emotions, then choose your response from clarity, not impulse.

Growth isn’t passive

“Growing” personally means you increase your capabilities and the value you have to give to others.

Growing means you increase confidence and reduce fear.

Growing means you increase your ability to solve problems and make things work.

Growing means you develop more of the potential that is already inside you, waiting.

But growing doesn’t come by being passive.  It doesn’t come by doing the same things you have always done.  It doesn’t come by just using the knowledge and beliefs you have already.

Growing comes by learning new things – reading and listening and watching and attending.

Growth comes by doing things you have never done, and making space for those things by dropping some things you were doing that have less value or negative value.

Growth comes by stepping out and stepping up, where you wouldn’t have before.

Growth comes by spending time with high-quality people and going to places that are good for you and that inspire you.

Growth is something you do on purpose.  

You have to get after it.

Listen to your body, and listen to your soul.

From “The Pivot Year” by Brianna Wiest – 

When you’re tired, rest.

When you’re motivated, act.

When you’re inspired, create.

When you’re hopeful, leap.

When you’re doubtful, wait.

When you’re ready, go.

These feeling states act as portals of possibility, and when you let them slide by, you choose not to enter the parallel reality it was pulling you toward.

Listen to your body and listen to your soul.

These emotions are rarely random, but instead open and close doors at just the right time.

The Paradox of Choice – last installment

We have been talking about what living in an age of endless choices for what to do, where to work, what to buy, who to be with, etc. etc. can really fatigue us, distract us, prevent us from being present to one thing, and hurt our happiness rather than help it.

Our phones deliver “everything to everyone all the time”.  How’s that working for your mental health?

Let’s explore a few final thoughts.  

The author says every “yes” means a “no” to something else.  I talk about this in my School of Entrepreneurship.  You only have so much time in a day, and lives are made of days.  Saying yes to one thing means you are saying no to something else.  And saying yes to too much, means you enjoy nothing the way you would otherwise.  Awareness of this helps you choose with intention, not anxiety.

Simplicity enhances satisfaction.  Limit choices where possible – routines, criteria, boundaries – to reclaim focus and peace.

More choices don’t guarantee better lives, but clearer priorities do.