It is well accepted that Leonardo da Vinci was one of the smartest people who ever lived. My favorite quote of his is. “Success lies in the relentless execution of the basics.” For me that’s being in the present moment. No matter what I’m doing, I’m more effective if I am present. A big part of that is dealing with things as they are, instead of how I want them to be.
That hasn’t always come easily for me. I identify with Spencer Johnson’s quote in his book The Precious Present. “Learning to be present was a process he was going to have to do over and over…again and again…until it became a part of him.” My attention, left unguarded, naturally gravitates to the future or the past, at the expense of the present moment.
Here are some examples. I really messed up when I did ……… Life will be so much better when ……….happens. I’ll be enough when I correct ……..fault of mine.
When we built our home we designed it ourselves. We minimized the hall space and maximized the living areas. We don’t live in the hall. I want to do the same thing with my life. My life is happening now, not spent on the way to somewhere else, like reliving the past or in the future where everything will finally be right.
I have found that being present, is my foundation to the life I want to live. Executing that relentlessly is my da Vinci code. Having a healthy vagus nerve makes that much easier and the cornerstone of that process is daily meditation. I discussed this in my post Setting Sail. Nothing more complicated than perception.
May you have enough today, one moment at a time.
Let your vagus nerve help.
