Today I stared at myself 30 years ago. I helped my son move into his new place where he will be spending the next few years of his life studying to be an engineer. As things were winding down, he expressed feelings of anxiety and I realized that I was looking at myself, and my exact same reaction at the same point in my life.
What do you tell yourself 30 years ago? I had that rare opportunity this evening. You see I had this really self critical nature, rotten with perfection if you will. Sometimes it was so bad that I was paralyzed in my ability to do anything effective. I was such a perfectionist that I could not do anything good enough, so I would procrastinate everything because anything that I did would take a monumental effort to take on. I battled with that problem for decades. What piece of advice do I give myself?
Mindfulness. If I were to use a word. Mindfulness requires you to be present in the current moment only. To deal with today’s problem, the here and now, the moment in front of you. When you tackle what life is presenting to you at this current time, then you are acutely aware of your state of being and you are unable to judge what you will be or could be you can only deal with what you are.
Live in the moment if you want to put it another way. The sad thing is that it took a life time for me to think that way, and I am afraid that experience is the only teacher.
Guy Reams
