How Can We Be NOW and NEXT?

"What a wonderful life I've had. I only wish I'd realized it sooner." - Colette

There is a wisdom in being content with what we already have - instead of constantly seeking MORE and somehow believing it will make us happier.

Look around right now. Say, “I am enough. I have enough.”

Did your shoulders just drop? Your jaw unclench? Did you let out a heartfelt sigh and feel the tension drain from your body?

That’s how being present feels.

Kind of the opposite of the daily rush to do more and have more, isn’t it?

Some people believe contentment is passive, like we’re settling, giving up.

I think it is a state of appreciation and it's not mutually exclusive with aspiration.

We can appreciate and aspire at the same time. They're not one or the other. We can have a combination of BOTH.

Where are you on the Continuum of Contentment?

I am right smack dab in the middle. I have one foot in the NOW and one foot in the NEXT.

Part of me is content with where I am, who I am, and what I’m doing.

Part of me is looking ahead to where I want to go, who I want to be, what I want to do.

Being in the now and in the next is a kind of abundance.

Your thoughts?

I've shared some evocative quotes about mindfulness, presence, and how we can be happier right here, right now. Feel free to select favorites and post them where they're in sight, it mind. They might just be the right words at the right time to drop into the now ... now.

25 Quotes on Mindfulness, Presence and Being Grateful Here and Now

1. "Maturity is a kind of enoughness." - poet David Whyte
2. "He who breathes deepest lives most." - Elizabeth Barrett Browing
3. "A young man fears that by going too slow, he risks missing something. An older man knows that by going too fast, he risks missing everything." - David Peterson
4. "My happiness is on me, so you're off the hook." - Byron Katie
5. "Reincarnation is making a comeback." - Jaimal Yogis
6. "How we live our days is, of course, how we live our life." - Annie Dillard
7. "The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blad of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescriably magnificnt workd in itself." - Henry Miller
8. "There's no present like the time. Now is better than more." - Sam Horn
9. "If the only prayer we ever said was 'Thank you,' that would be enough. Meister Ekhart
10. "I've always had the feeling that life loves the liver of it." - Maya Angelou
11. "We are here and it is now. Further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine." - H. L. Mencken
12. "You must learn to be still in the midst of activity, and to be vibrantly alive in repose." - Indira Gandhi
13. "We are like a man standing in a clear stream while dying of thirst." Zen saying (or as the Polynisians say, "standing on a whale fishing for minnows.")
14. "Silence is wonderful to listen to." - Thomas Hardy
15. "Everything works better when it's unplugged every once in awhile. That includes you." - Anne Lamott
16. "NOW thyself' is more important than 'KNOW thyself.'" - Mel Brooks
17. "It all falls right in place ... in my special space." - Joni Mitchell
18. "We have to lose our minds to come to our senses." - Fritz Perl
19. "Nobody sees a flower, really, it is so small, we haven't time, and to see takes time." - Georgia O'Keefe
20. "As you walk, eat, and travel, be where you are. "Otherwise, you will miss your life." - the Buddha
21. "For lack of attention, a thousand forms of loveliness elude us every day." - Evelyn Underhill
22. "Meditation is not a means to an end. It is both the means and the end." - Krishnamurti
23. "Other people have analysis. I have Utah." - Robert Redford
24. "It was one of those days so clear, so silent, so still, you could almost feel the earth had stopped in astonishment at its own beauty." - Katherine Mansfield
25. "Eternity has nothing to do with the hereafter. This is it. If you don't get it here, you won't get it anywhere." - Joseph Campbell
26. "Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits." - Satchel Paige

Let's wrap up with the inimitable Fred Rogers. On his 70th birthday, he was asked by a reporter how he felt. He said, "I've never made a fuss over big things like birthdays or milestones. I'd much rather focus on the little moments, the simple things. When people ask me 'What's next?' I always say, "THIS is NEXT.'"

Today, promise yourself you will be NOW and NEXT. It's the best of both worlds.

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Sam Horn, CEO of the Intrigue Agency and 3 time TEDx speaker, is on a mission to help people create a life-work that adds value for all involved. These quotes are featured in her SOMEDAY is Not a Day in the Week, Got Your Attention? and ConZentrate books which been featured on NPR, in Harvard Business Review (Ascend), and presented to NASA's Leadership Series at Goddard Space Center, American Bankers Assn., and YPO.