Contrary to what most of us have been told, living in the moment can benefit you greatly when it comes to long-term business success. Being present is more than just listening to and seeing what’s going on around you, it’s about appreciating what you have right at this very moment in time.
Living in the moment makes us happier. Not only that, when you’re constantly thinking of the future — or worse — the past, your mind gets distracted from what’s on the current agenda. This not only kills happiness, but also productivity.
Here’s 5 ways to live in the moment to increase your eventual entrepreneurial success:
1. Don’t let distractions distract you.
I’m stealing yet another Eric Thomas quote here. Though I’m sure he wasn’t the first to ever say it. Plain and simple, you have to see those distracting thoughts coming, or at least recognize them when they start to take over, and learn to turn them off before they start to put the hurt on your productivity.
Accomplishing this goal is as simple as turning off/tuning out those distractions and focusing on the task at hand. This might seem far too simple to be practical — if you have a problem with distractions — but it’s actually quite easy to pull off. You have a job to do, so focus on it fully until it’s completed.
Simple, yet effective!
2. Increase your present intelligence by turning off your smart devices.
Contrary to their name, smartphones don’t actually make you smarter and they don’t allow you to live and work in the present moment. Though this might seem counter intuitive to a practice that has you staring at a screen and dealing with whatever is coming through, most of it is just mental garbage related to what you did yesterday, or last weekend, or what you’ll be doing at a future date and time.
Even if you’re making plans related to your business, there’s only so much of that you can do at the expense of what’s going on right now in your company. Free apps like Freedom and many others can help you curb your smartphone addiction — be it social media, email alerts — whatever.
3. Shake up your daily routine.
Doing the same thing day in and day out is a really easy way to make your brain rebel against you and your desire to live in the moment fully. The reason behind this is that doing the same thing at the same time, in the same place actually causes people to get tunnel vision.
Everything in your surroundings melds together, you become blissfully unaware and suddenly it’s like your life feels much like how we all feel when watching the same old boring sitcom on the cable box because there’s nothing else one.
This doesn’t mean that if you work every day, you should stop actually working in order to shake up your routine. Rather, mix in different things such as checking emails later in the morning instead of first thing — or going somewhere different for lunch, etc.
4. Decompress when something gets in your way.
Busy entrepreneurs rarely get a chance to actually sit back and just breathe. This is even more true if you have an active personal and/or family life waiting for you when (if) you’re finished work. However, think of all the times when you’re put on hold with a supplier, or while waiting for a higher up to get on the phone during an important cold call: What do you do then?
Probably let your blood pressure build, thinking of what’s going to happen next, or about when that certain someone is going to arrive with the delivery you need, etc. This is the perfect time to sit back and take a breath. In actuality, you’re ignoring tip number 1 by doing this, but you’re doing it at the most opportune time possible.
Think about what makes you happy, such as goals you’ve achieved or goals that you want to achieve that you can start doing something toward right now. As long as it leads to an appreciation of what you have, or sparks you to take positive action toward something immediately, it’s okay to think foreword or even backward for just a little bit.
5. Make it a challenge to yourself.
Challenge yourself to live in the moment and never look back on that commitment. That’s it! If you like challenges, this won’t be a problem, if challenges are difficult for you to keep up with, then challenge yourself first to start taking on and sticking with more challenges.
Life won’t wait on any of us.
In order to fully live out your dreams, it’s up to you to put the brakes on now and again — to slow things down just enough that you’re fully conscious of what’s going on.
Live in the present for a few days and you’ll soon realize the future looks much brighter!
Main Image Credit: Miroslav Petrasko/Flickr
