Be present: focus on what you have

‘Michael was a mystic. He was never anywhere else. His gift was not that he could jump high, run fast, shoot a basketball. His gift was that he was completely present. And that was the separator’. This of course refers to Michael Jordan and the quote being from the Netflix documentary ‘The Last Dance’. Michael Jordan knew how to live in the present, he was never anywhere else. He had talent, and he worked hard but there is a particular focus that comes with constantly being present. Most of us do not live in the present. Instead we are either anchored by the past or looking ahead to the future.

We avoid living in the moment

There will likely be times when you are masking boredom, chasing an outcome or accomplishments. All of which are ways to get out of the current moment. It is like when our parents buy us clothes that are too big in hope we will grow into them. This is living in the future instead of the present. Are you living in clothes that are too big, or ones that fit just right?

In ‘Stillness is the key’ Ryan Holiday explicitly states that ‘we do not live in the present. We, in fact, try desperately to get out of it.’ We live a busy lifestyle to mask being in the moment. We spend time on our phones and other devices to avoid being bored because that would leave us in a place alone with just our thoughts. Ryan Holiday suggests that we need stillness to be fully present. This means having clarity of thought through rejecting distractions and being deliberate without being…