Right Here, Right Now

Or, to put it another way… 

There is never anything but the present.

Wow, Fat Boy Slim and Alan Watts in the same breath. What could have brought about such a glorious juxtaposition?

Purpose. Call it what you will, but there’s undeniably a lot of it around these days. And condensing things into a pithy My Why elevator pitch can put a lot of pressure on us. It often seems like everyone else is so sussed and laser-sharp on their way forward while we’re zapping channels and debating Vietnamese or Indian takeaway. Who knows what lies ahead?

I cover the question of having a purpose in another Postcard (Do we really need a purpose?), but let’s just remind ourselves upfront that it’s completely cool if we’re not sussed and laser-sharp on the road ahead. Maybe something will trigger that search for us one day. Maybe we’re good with how things are.

Yet for those questing for direction, how about if we put it out there that this very moment right now is the most important moment in our lives? That this is the only moment that counts? Hmmm, how does that nugget of existentialism sit with us?

For some of us take purpose out of the present to locate it in a mystical point in the future towards which all is subjugated. We look at this peak shining brightly in the sun on the horizon, and we say to ourselves, I will be happy when…. I will be fulfilled when… Life will have a meaning when…

And yes, let’s not downplay that. Hitting challenging goals we have set ourselves is a truly great feeling. The magic dust of such achievement lasts a long time, and this world is better for what we have accomplished. However, wonderful as it is, it’s not nirvana (we’re talking more Watts’ world than Fatboy Slim’s here). It does not represent the culmination of everything, the point where we sigh with relief and go, Well, that was all pretty stupendous and now it’s back to the sofa and maybe some Lebanese…?

The old saying has it that it’s the journey that counts, not the destination. The travelling not the arriving. We exist in motion as verbs not nouns, doers not be-ers. To bring another strand of philosophy into the fray, purpose plays out in a Stoic approach where we embrace our surrounding world and live well, true to ourselves and to others. 

Our purpose coaching REALM model – I am Rooted, I am Excellent, I am Authentic, I am Loose, I have a Mission, I have Momentum, and I have a Map – specifically celebrates the here and now in the same way an organisational vision is only successful if its employees live and breathe it on a daily basis.

That mindful purity of focus – the present instant – is central to purpose. For it is in the learning and growth of pursuing something larger than ourselves that we live our best life. The actual working on something meaningful. In this there is no finite point, no arrival. It is, in short, living well. It’s living right here, right now. It’s dancing in the moment. 

Go on, as the bard says, put your hands up in the air…