Look and do something about what is directly in front of you. Don’t look behind you and don’t get anxious at all of the things that have made an appearance on the horizon. Look straight ahead, look around and take care of the things that need taking care of.
We like to prepare ourselves. We buy books that offer us help we are not ready to take right now. We research opportunities we are financially unable to undertake. We have a myriad of reasons why we are doing this or why we can’t do that but we neglect to do what we can do.
Do what’s right in front of you and it may not be sexy or exciting but that’s what you need to do.
You might have to do dishes, take the dog for a walk, drop the kids off at school, or go grocery shopping for tonights dinner. You may haver to answer some emails, or put your car in for an oil change, or you’ve made plans for a coffee date with a friend. No matter what little things push and pull you in every direction, it is important to stay focused on what is present and in the real moment. Many times we get frozen stiff by the road ahead and the work and experience of today pays the price.
Forget looking ahead. Tomorrow will take care of itself. Tomorrows problems may or may not arrive, and in any case, there is precious little you can really do about them today. I’m not talking about the things we can actually change today, but the things out of our control, that we worry about today, when we should tackle them tomorrow.
You might be working on a project and it might not be going well, and so you drag your feet because you don’t want it to come to a conclusion. If it is finished, you reason, your boss will finally know, or if you don’t have a boss, you will know once and for all that you were wrong about your capabilities. But that is painfully untrue. What you are doing is rejecting yourself and sabotaging your efforts for a version of your boss of yourself that is most likely inaccurate and exagurated.
Don’t reject yourself. Leave that God given right to others. Don’t stop yourself from finishing or starting things that are well within your grasp to start and finish. Look for and attend to what is in front of you. Right there. The immediate set of things you should do each and every day. If you’re writing a novel, write five hundred words every day, and yes, you will get there. If you’re writing a song, put one front in front of the other and eventually you will have a working demo, you can pretty up to be something amazing. Likewise, if you are looking for love, don’t let one disastrous or incoherent date stop you from going on a second or a third. Focus on what’s right in front of you. Stop wanting to control your future. Stop looking for certainty and hesitate because of your past.
Right here right now, that’s what matters.
Do what is right in front of you.
Do it with an open heart, do it with gusto, but above everything else, do it now.
Cover photo generously provided by photographer Luca Bravo via unsplash.com
