I received an email newsletter late last week from Kari Chapin (author of Handmade Marketplace & Grow Your Handmade Business). She talked about coming across a quote that stopped her in her tracks;
“Be where you are, not where you think you should be”
It made her take stock, and realise she wasn’t living in the moment. We can all relate to this, I’m sure. We live busy lives… there never seems to be enough time to achieve everything, to stop and smell the roses. Kari said after she read it, she thought to herself;
“I should do that. I should think about that. I should let that sink in later, when I’m finished with this work. After I grade these business plans, answer those Tweets, and do that tiny to-do list since it’s only six items long. Then maybe after dinner and walking the dogs and cleaning the kitchen and answering emails… maybe tomorrow I can think about it on my walk or in the shower. I’ll try to remember.”
The quote resonated with me as it did with Kari, but I was pleasantly surprised that it spoke to me in a different way. I have always lived two (or three) steps ahead. Never thinking about where I am at that particular moment, this has been especially true of the year just been. Half way through last year I started planning my wedding, honeymoon, quitting my 9-5 job and starting self employment. From the point the planning began in early July 2012, except (luckily) on my wedding day in March, I was never in the moment. Always two months in the future, thinking of what I’d have to achieve to get there or wishing I was there already. Because I quit my job just before the wedding, and didn’t start proper self employment till we got back from travelling round Asia for our honeymoon for two months (while we spent most of our savings) most of the trip mentally I was ‘back at home’ working already.
This is not something, sadly, I can’t blame squarely on the busy wedding/honeymoon/change in job time in my life. It’s something I’ve always done, something I thought I would always do. I never thought about it in a negative way, just assumed I had a very organised, forward thinking brain!
Kari’s newsletter made me realise that now that I’m a bit more settled, and in the day to day swing of self employment I am right here, right now and very happy to be here. Making a choice to live my dream has meant that I am right here doing it, every day, mentally and physically. It’s chilled me out in a way I didn’t know was possible (or that I needed).
Of course the nature of what I do, requires a little planning ahead. Ranges to complete and release, deadlines and personal goals means it’s impossible to not look to the future in some way, to plan ahead. But it’s important that you don’t let it consume you. I am so thankful to Kari for making me realise that I no longer live like this! It’s nice being on the other side…
Why not give it a try today… “Be where you are, not where you think you should be“
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