The Concept of "BEING."

"You only live once -- but if you work it right, once is enough." - Joe E. Lewis ________________________________

It's 7:30 pm on Friday and I'm traveling uptown on the subway, reflecting on my day . . .

Wishing I wasn't getting home so late. 

Hoping to see my daughter, smiling and awake, and regretting that I hadn't seen her all day.

Lamenting about not being productive enough in my free time.

And then I snapped out of it.  Why was I so discontent?  Why wasn't I simply accepting my day as it unfolded?  What was I trying to get back? 

And what was I losing as I spent my time thinking about it? 

What was I losing?!?!?  I was losing right now.  I was missing out on being in the moment.  I was missing out on truly living.

What does this have to do with training? 

Everything.

It has as much to do with training as it does with everyday life.

When you focus on letting yourself "be," there's no time for fear, contemplation, regret, excessive analysis. . . to get in the way of a pure, unadulterated, full-blown effort and experience.  (An experience that you can now gloriously reflect on.)

When you truly live in the moment and let yourself simply "be," you free yourself up to be the best you can be. . . giving yourself the opportunity to reach your highest potential.

Comments

[Chris - Shoulder Performance & Rehab]

Christopher - You have hit on a point that plagues so many people. We are so busy reliving yesterday or planning on tomorrow that we miss out on now. And "now" is all that matters! I have felt some of the same frustrations that you wrote about in this post and like you, I have to force myself to stop and be in the moment.

Thanks for reminding us all of the power of now.

[Cousin Michelle]

You speak the truth. All sorts of things can go wrong, but what you are never going to get back is the moment. I can't tell you how much focus on the past or what hasn't worked that I see people dwell on. Fortunately I have witnessed people turn their lives around after living horrible lives and realize that me sitting in traffic is nothing, because at least I have a car to drive, and at least I have a place to go home to.