Here. Now. Today.
It’s my new mantra.
Too often, we are not in the present. We’re mining the middens of the past trying to explain away our bad feelings or bad behavior or we’re floating into painful projections of a future more akin to a post-apocalyptic world.
Lately, I’ve been dealing with my anxiety. Part of my job as a movie producer is to prevent potential problems with production and minimize liabilities as much as possible. My job is to look at a script and ask myself, “What could go wrong here,” and “Where is there a waste of money or other resources?”
Therefore, as part of being in a leadership position, I do have to put some mind-space in the future and the what-ifs. People count on me to anticipate and solve problems. And if I solve a problem that never grows into a full-blown “issue”, all the better! However, once it makes my heart race or prevents me from moving forward, I’ve started to go to:
Here. Now. Today.
Here–where I am–the space–my office, the coffee shop, etc.
Now–what am I doing in the now–data entry, memorizing, budgeting
Today–the actual date and time
Here. Now. Today.
I also have to accept there’s enough entropy that I won’t be able to anticipate all the issues. I recently toured a movie ranch that lost 20 structures in the last California wildfire. There’s no way anyone could have predicted that specific facility would have lost all those structures–iconic ones. There are limits to what we can foresee and anticipate, even if we have keen minds and heightened intuition.
If you’re feeling anxious, or are tasked with trying to lead a group, especially projecting the future, know that you can’t project or prognosticate everything. You can only do the best you can do.
Here, now, today is our greatest point of power.
Kristin West 