How well do you recognize the life you are living right now?

Not the life you’re planning or imagining. This one. The one you woke up in this morning.

Look at it directly, seriously, intimately. Where you live, who you love, how you spend your hours, what you’ve learned the hard way. Look at the truth of it, even the parts that differ from what you hoped.

Do you really see it?

Many of us don’t. We’re so busy aiming for change, complaining, moving fast that we live without being immediately present. We make plans and chase dreams, and stop noticing what’s already here: the nuances, the riches, the potential sitting in plain sight, the many reasons for gratitude.

When my book, The Next Act, was published, I held it in my hands and was profoundly moved. Immensely grateful. It had been in me for years, waiting for me to discover it. It didn’t arrive from somewhere else. It grew out of the life I had already lived, and I wanted to share that knowledge with others.

Even the hard parts. I grew up in a pretty unhappy home. I could have let that make me a victim. Instead, I chose to overcome it and take charge of my own happiness and well-being. Those struggles helped make me who I am. They were raw material, not a dead end.

So yes, want more. Valuing your present life doesn’t mean you’ve settled. It means you’re standing on solid ground. Aware.

Ask yourself:

What do I want to achieve?

Why do I want to achieve it?

Then ask the better question:

How can that achievement include the life I have now?

Not replace it. Include it.

Your next chapter doesn’t begin by escaping this one. It grows out of it.

Your present life deserves to be recognized. It is the only place where anything you hope for can begin. It’s living in and valuing the present.

Thanks – Michael (he,him)

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This is also good to think about and act on – Live Your Best Life.

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