17 January 2012

QUIT YOUR FUTURE TRIPPING! : HOW TO LOVE YOUR 'NOW'

With all this new year goal setting flying around, I am finding myself getting caught up in a severe case of future tripping. My mind is completely overwhelmed with all of my future goals, and as a result it is taking me away from simply enjoying this delicious present moment. 

I have a bit of the grass is greener mentality. The grass over there seems so luscious and beautiful and as a result it makes the grass here look totally dull and boring.

Sure, there is nothing wrong with feeling super psyched about all the exciting things you want to manifest this year. However, trouble arises when you find that your future fantasising leads you to feel totally and utterly dissatisfied with where you are now.

This pretty much sums up exactly what is happening to me. Let's see if you can relate....

(above: my new affirmation!!)

MY FUTURE TRIPPING WOES

At the moment I have a day job. I enjoy my job. There is nothing wrong with it. However I do not love my job. The main aim of this job at the moment is to pay the bills so that I can support myself in my transition to start up my own business. Each day after work, I literally rush home so that I can start work on what I am really passionate about. In the evenings after a long day at the office, I do not watch tv or sit on the couch. I work. I write on my blog. I work with coaching clients. I study. I connect with my like minded peeps in the world wide web. I meditate. I read. I brainstorm about my future plans and I design and develop all the exciting components of my dream job. And I love it.

Basically outside of work, I do what I love. And I love it so much that sometimes I cannot sleep. And then, I wake up and I go back to my reality and it feels like a slap in the face. In comparison to where I want to be, where I am now seems totally boring and uninspiring.

So, herein lies my problem. How do we remain happy day in day out with where we are in our lives, while also allowing ourselves to get ridiculously caught up in all the delicious details of our future?

The answer? 

We have to learn to love our NOW, while at the same time being excited about what is coming

LOVE YOUR NOW

This is the trick. You have to find a way to love, enjoy, appreciate and adore everything about where you are now and what you have now, while you wait for all your awesome future stuff to come to you.

This requires a delicate balancing act. It is a balance between...

Appreciating everything you already have + Loving the present moment + Making every day the best it can be 

While also...

Focusing on the end goal you are working towards + Dedicating huge amounts of your physical and mental energy to your future outcome +  Feeling super excited and eager about where you are going

Now you get why it can be challenging, huh!

HOW ON EARTH DO I LOVE MY NOW? (I hear you ask!)

I want to share with you what I do to bring myself back to the present moment. This stuff is tried and tested and it really helps. So if you too have a case of the future trips, try out these hot tips...

+ Open your eyes: Personally, when I future trip, I am 100% percent stuck in my head. Often I find myself getting quite lost in the future world in my head. Life becomes one big daydream. When this happens I stop, open my eyes, and focus on something in my immediate environment. Start to actually look at what is around you and in front of you. We miss so much beauty and magic that is right in front of us when we are in our heads 

+ Make peace with where you are: Stop resisting it. Stop complaining about it. Stop noticing all the things wrong with it. Simply accept it. This is your reality in this moment. Make peace with it.

+ Remember, life is a journey: Yes, it sounds cliche but it is actually true. There is so much involved in the journey you are taking as you move towards what you want. Life is not purely about getting things. It is about who we become in the process. The reason things take time, is because we first need to go through the process of becoming the person we need to be in order to be able to handle what we are getting. 

+ Find the positives: When we are unhappy in a situation, the main reason is because we are focusing on all the things we do not like about it. I have no doubt that if there is an area of your life that you are wanting to change or move away from, you spend most of your time thinking about what is wrong with it, rather than what is right. True? So, start finding the positives. Start looking for what is great about where you are. Trust me, there are things. Search for them. The more you focus on the positives, the more positive your situation will become.

+ Learn a little patience:  In this day and age, we all want everything at the click of a finger. We are no longer prepared to wait. Patience, as a quality, is actually a beautiful skill to practice. The gift of being patient is that it makes you slow down. We are all so rushed these days. But having to wait for something, makes you stop. You are forced to stop and wait in a situation where you would normally trying to make things happen as fast as possible. Have a little faith in the divine timing that is going on, and practice a wee bit of patience.

So, over to you! I want to know...

+ What area of your life are you future tripping in?
+ What practices do you use to help you love your now?

3 comments:

  1. I am so-ho-HO guilty of this! "Future tripping" is such a good way to describe it. A practice I use is to exercise my appreciation for all the teeny-tiny little things rather than the bigger picture stuff. I really try to enjoy fresh air, blue skies, a quiet cup of tea to myself, time with friends, time with family, good movies, tasty meals - even if we want to change our job, travel, etc. the little things are unlikely to change much, and it can be all these little things that, in the end, make life worth living, so I find it a good habit to revel in them as much as possible!

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  2. Thanks Megan. I LOVE the tip you have shared here! It is spot on. I agree that future tripping gets us caught up in the big picture and we see everything from such a distant perspective. But your practice of focusing on those super small things, totally shifts that and causes you to begin to focus in on the present moment. It also creates such a beautiful awareness and appreciation of the gorgeous little things you have in your life already.

    Such a beautiful comment! Thank you xx

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  3. I love this post, thank you! It describes me to a T. Part of the reason I started blogging is to slow down and appreciate the 'now' more, as well as planning for the future. I am an obsessive planner, or as I will now say, Future Tripper! I guess life is about finding the balance between two.

    It can never hurt to be reminded that everyday is a gift, that's why they call it the present, right!

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