Cherish Each Moment, Beginning Today

The basic idea: If you work for a living, the odds are pretty high that you've been trained to dwell in the future. So much of professional life is about striving towards a goal... planning for next quarter... scheduling the next meeting... or setting objectives for the years to come

These activities come with an unintended side effect: they train you to ignore what's happening right now, all around you. They pull your attention into a two-dimensional, over-simplified, intellectual abstraction... of an arbitrary moment in the future. The richness of that fictional moment pales next to what you will discover if you pay deep attention to this moment, right now.

In the next three minutes, let's prove it.

A bit more background: Today, I'm going to ask you to do three things. Your tendency might be to rush them.

Please don't. Did I mention they will take three minutes, in total?

I promise you won't be disappointed.

First, for the next minute, count your breaths. Count the duration of your inhalations, and then count the duration of your exhalations.

Please do it now.

Next, spend one minute looking at your hands. Try to learn as much about them as you can, simply through observation.

Please do it now.

Finally, close your eyes for one minute and focus on your fingertips. Are they tingling? Can you feel the air around them? Is there any sensation at all at the tip of each finger and thumb?

***

Thank you for indulging me. What happened?

Breathing—Did the duration of your breaths change? When I count my breaths, they tend to get longer. I shift away from shallow breathing towards a more relaxed pace. Counting my breaths is the best technique I've ever encountered for helping me to remain calm in stressful situations.

Observing—I'm betting the last time you simply gazed at your hands for a full minute, you were about age five. (If I'm wrong, please tell me so.) Why is this? How can we not have the time or inclination to pay attention to these magical tools that make so much of our lives possible? And if we aren't noticing our hands, what else are we missing?

(By the way, I noticed the curious fact that my right hand is drier and more wrinkled than my left.)

Feeling—When you closed your eyes and focused on the sensations in your fingertips, did they change? Please share your experiences in the comments section under this piece on LinkedIn.

These three activities were a gentle nudge to help you decide whether you are cherishing each moment, or rushing right by them...

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Bruce Kasanoff is a co-writer for entrepreneurs. He helps his clients recognize and communicate what matters most to them.