When my oldest son was young, he picked up in spades an attribute that I have spent a lifetime overcoming - which is not being fully present. My tendency was to be multiple steps ahead of where I was, and never in the moment. This style of operating can be beneficial in business where having a future orientation can head off potential disasters as well as seeing opportunities before they are in your lap. In a lot of ways, it’s having “vision” which is an important attribute of leaders. Antithetically, if you are always somewhere else, you are likely not on top of your business. You are not focused. I had similar issues all through high school and college where I would ask the teacher about something they would tell me we were going to cover in the future. Of course, I felt they were wasting my time. The thing is, you have got to know when to turn off forward thinking. While it can be beneficial in business, it can be quite the joy killer in your personal life. 
 
I happened to catch the classic movie “Field of Dreams” the other day. There was a scene that particularly caught my attention relative to the idea of being here now. In the scene, iconic Burt Lancaster was talking about a time when he was kid and had an opportunity to play major league baseball. He had only played in one series of one game, but when that chance didn’t bear fruit, he decided to go to medical school and become a small-town physician, who was beloved by the entire community. 
 
As he thought back to that moment in time, he said, “It was like coming this close to your dreams and watching them brush past you like a stranger in the crowd. At the time you don’t think much of it. You know, we just don’t recognize the most significant moments of our lives while they’re happening. Back then, I thought there would be other days. I didn’t realize that was the only day.” Many of us can relate to such moments in our lives where a moment in time is the only day. This is quite the epiphany when it happens. The good news is that it’s never too late to course correct and find a way to relish the best moments of your life when you are in them, which is every moment. At the end of the day, those moments are underscored by an attitude that whatever or wherever the situation, you are never losing when you are present. Life is in the moment. Be here now!