Mindfulness and Living With Vision

As humans with stories that we tell that become our existence, not only do we become those stories, but we use them as a way to define moments lived solely in the future. The future becomes a continuation of the stories and not a place lived in love, a place lacking a Vision or mission. The future is then the ever-present reality of that place we are always striving for in the past.

While it is mindful to imagine a future filled with things, as it is the human condition to have goals, there is a danger here. Goals are not Vision, but are merely subsets thereof. It is in the bible that the words are penned, “Where there is no vision, the people perish” but here is the distinction.

As creatures of expansion, as has been given to us by our creator and is the way of the universe, we sometimes mistake Goals for Vision. You can have a goal to make a certain amount of money, but that is just a thing, a tangible object that defines your pursuit.

But Vision is completely different; the definition, besides the obvious of someone seeing, is:

1. Unusual competence in discernment or perception; intelligent foresight: a leader of vision.
2. The manner in which one sees or conceives of something.
3. A mental image produced by the imagination.
4. The mystical experience of seeing as if with the eyes the supernatural or a supernatural being.

You see, Vision carries an extra dynamic and has all of the component of mindfulness built into it. Vision is that process of not just seeing some thing to be obtained, but really a larger-than-yourself experience to better the human condition.

Vision carries the very presence of living completely in the Present Moment because, quite frankly, when you think in a supernatural realm, you intrinsically know that there is only this Now Moment to achieve Vision. It seems like a dichotomy, two especially mutually exclusive or contradictory concepts, that cannot possibly work together.

How can having a Vision to change the world NOT be totally future based?

For the simple reason that when you release the ego and go outside yourself, there is only a passion that must live in this Present Moment alone. You have only this Present Moment alone to be the person of change, the person of Vision. You must first be that vision for yourself, and then it becomes the driving force for living life.

In the concept of a theatrical experience, Goals would be like opening a show, Opening Night, while the vision would be to change the way the very experience of theatre is perceived to the people you serve. You introduce art and beauty to a world that maybe had limited, if any, exposure prior to this point.

That is Vision. To raise the experience of the beauty of art to another level that transcends the Opening Night experience. The Vision then becomes a mission to impact the human condition.

Remember as you create goals, that it is really about having a Vision for who you are as a person of quality. Be more than merely goals. Become the Vision and lose your ego to the greater good. Then you will truly experience beauty in living, a true love for life.

Let me know your thoughts below, get on the newsletter list HERE, and share with your friends, for the more people we have living successfully in this Now Moment and discussing the value of doing so, the higher we lift all others around us.

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DA Southern is a Strategic Personal Development Coach, teaching the spirit of living in Now Moments with the principles he experienced during over 35 years as an actor and director in live theatre. DA coaches his clients to rid life of limiting beliefs that have kept them from achieving miracles in all areas of their life by embracing Mindfulness of the Present Moment with a renewed Vision for life. Contact DA Southern for coaching @ directyourownlife@gmail.com

Clarity of Vision, Focus And Personal Development Are Often Masked bythe Sun

Focus, Clarity and Personal Development is the Triangle of Love.

Face it, we are overwhelmed with instantaneous news and content that blasts our senses with information at such a rapid pace, it is a wonder we get anything done at all. It is almost as though, in the world of smartphones, tablets and instant everything, clarity is overload. It as if we are being told that unless we have the information we need RIGHT NOW, we can't function in today's modern society. Clarity, vision and personal development, it seems, hinge on the amount of information you have, not the simplicity of it all.

Now, trust me, I am not a “You kids get off of my lawn” kind of guy. I am a tech person thru-and-thru. I love gadgets and, quite frankly do all my pursuits online and with technology, so I understand the temptation to depend on your very thinking with the overload that is today’s world.

But as I sit and type this, I look out my window on what appears to be a beautiful, sunny day. But what the sun is masking in all of its information overload of brightness is that when I step outside to go on my daily bike ride, the sun didn’t tell me it was cold.

You see, the sun overloaded my senses with its brightness but failed to give me clarity. It was only until I garnered my own experience and perspective, did I see the usefulness of clarity. It was only when I set about on my personal development, in this case health by riding my bike, did i understand that i needed to protect myself from the cold.

It is that time of year when we are hyper-focused on “getting it right”, whatever that means, and setting goals and plans and dreams and riches and success and blah, blah, blah. But what really needs to happen here is your putting on the sunglasses and deciding for yourself what is right for you.

This is the only Now Moment you have and it is the time when clarity is not decided by the world telling you because of a certain season of the calendar year that you should do this or that.

Remember that your goals are Opening Nights. They are out there only as a reminder that you want to entertain the masses when the curtain opens. But that that opening curtain is only going to matter in this Now Moment. This Now Moment when you are clear and focused on your part only. While the other actors in your play may surprise you in their acting from time to time, you will never be thrown off as you know YOU so well that you can get them back on track, if needed because of your focus and clarity.

Clarity, Focus and Personal Development are the three sides of the triangle that keep you grounded in this Now Moment, so, put on your sun glasses and decide for yourself that this is the moment that matters most.

Set Opening Night, but don’t live there. Forgive the rehearsal nights of the past that may you may have been “off” as we all have our off nights where it seems as if we just don’t have a rhythm. Forgive yourself and others for it makes the journey better.

That’s the beauty of rehearsal, to become excellence in this Now Moment. Make clarity, focus and personal development your triangle that envelops your success and your Opening Night will be filled with accolades.

Let me know your thoughts below, get on the newsletter list HERE, and share with your friends, for the more people we have living successfully in this Now Moment and discussing the value of doing so, the higher we lift all others around us.

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DA Southern is a Now Moment coach, teaching the spirit of living in Now Moments with the principles he experienced during over 35 years as an actor and director in live theatre. DA coaches his clients to rid life of limiting beliefs that have kept them from achieving miracles in all areas of their life by embracing the beauty of this Now Moment with a renewed passion for life. Contact DA Southern for coaching @ directyourownlife@gmail.com

The Theme of Goals; There Is No Place Like Home

“You were able to get there any time, dear. Just tap your heels together and say, "There is no goal I can’t reach, there is no goal I can’t reach, there is no goal I can’t reach.”

OK...so I took some liberties with that infamous quote from the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy finds that she always had the power to get home. (Uhh, thanks Good Witch Glenda for that little piece of info, by the way. Would have been extremely helpful before the flying monkeys came around!)

But now that I think of it, I guess that is the point of it all. We all have to take our own journey down the Yellow Brick Road or we don’t appreciate the joy of the journey. But when it comes to those dastardly things called “Goals”, we are not unlike Dorothy at all, are we not? But the difference is that we are probably more like the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow; We lack courage, a heart and a brain and become nothing more than fodder for the flying monkeys.

Now, as a Now Moment thinker, this may seem a bit odd me talking all goals and such, but I assure you I am still imminently in the Now Moment. Goals are our “Opening Night” as we relate theatrical endeavors. We set them up and then we rehearse each and every Now Moment towards being ready for them when it is time. Where most fall down in the process is not so much in the setting of Opening Night, but in the rehearsal schedule.

What do I mean?

You see, before we ever even audition for the people to fill the roles, we have to have a rehearsal schedule in place. The roles, of course, are the people and events that have to happen to fulfill our goals. Even if it is a somewhat focused goal, as the old saying goes, “No man is an island”. No matter what the goal is, there are most likely people and circumstances that involve others to get you to Opening Night; that which is your goal.

Where we become heartless, brainless and lacking in courage is that we set an ambitious goal and then just say it over and over like that is supposed to give it some type of meaning and never bother to set a rehearsal schedule. In fact, like most New Years resolutions, we set it, and go full force into it and then burnout as we realize it is seemingly unattainable. It would be like giving an actor chosen for a show the script, telling him or her that we will rehearse the play tonight, learn it all, and open tomorrow night.

Can you imagine the horror?

Anyone who has ever acted can tell you of having dreams of that very fright. Curtain opens and you know none of your lines.

The point is that the rehearsal schedule for your goals is really no different. By breaking the goal into tiny little rehearsal-night pieces, you ready yourself for Opening Night one Now Moment at a time.

Opening Night is out there but here is the difference between the egoic nature and Now Moment thinking. The egoic nature has you obsessing about all that might, could or should go wrong on Opening Night, forgetting about rehearsing. Now Moment thinking says, we are as excellent as we can be in this Now Moment and are confident that Opening Night will reflect our excellence in each Now Moment.

Set your rehearsal schedule before you audition for the show and the theme of your goals will always be peace in your Now Moments. You then will indeed be able to tap your feet and say, “There is no place like home.”

Let me know your thoughts below, get on the newsletter list HERE, and share with your friends, for the more people we have living successfully in this Now Moment and discussing the value of doing so, the higher we lift all others around us.

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DA Southern is a Now Moment coach, teaching the spirit of living in Now Moments with the principles he experienced during over 35 years as an actor and director in live theatre. DA coaches his clients to rid life of limiting beliefs that have kept them from achieving miracles in all areas of their life by embracing the beauty of this Now Moment with a renewed passion for life. Contact DA Southern for coaching @ directyourownlife@gmail.com

Live In The Now Moments Of Life

Live in the NOW is a battle cry of many of the youthful persuasion and of those extreme sports-types that desire to push themselves to the limit.

We have been there, have we not? Times of our lives where we were living on the edge, youthful or both?

 

How to Live In The Now

We are all about living in the Now Moments of life, but take a far more philosophical approach to living Now Moments. Let em explain.

First, Now Moments. Notice that the words themselves are capitalized and this is for a reason. I have devoted myself to no longer looking at time in hours, days, weeks and months but at the moments that make up time itself.

You see, in all aspects of living, really each Now Moment has the aspects of the past, present and future ingrained in them. Isn’t it true that today is the future we dreamed of yesterday?

The point is that we have but a single moment that contains the seeds of everything we are and have been and desire to be. It is how we decide to live this Now Moment that decides our future Now Moments.

 

How to Get Happiness in Life

I desire you to know that this is not “pie in the sky” living and some type of escapism to not deal with life but a thoughtful approach to living life in the fullness of which we are all given whether we decide to grasp it or not. It is all about abundant living and it is a journey we all take. This is the truth of joy and happiness, this is true living.

Trust me, I have suffered the slings and arrows of many who I thought cared for me as I have formulated this way of living and I have grown as a result of it. I ask you to come along with me as we journey into the heart of living in dynamic Now Moments together. it will be worth the trip.

I come from a theatrical background having spent many years as a managing director of theatrical plays. I can tell you that i never once passed out scrips to my actors and said for them to learn everything about their parts and to come back a day before the show opened and we would put it all together.

 

Plan Your Future?

No, you see, ever mindful of Opening Night, we would perfect the show one Now Moment at a time as it was there contained within those rehearsals of intense, dynamic focus that the show lived on Opening Night. Do you see my meaning?

Remember what Yoda said to Luke Skywalker in Star Wars when thinking about training him?

 

"Always looking to the future this one is. Never his mind on where he is, what he is doing."  Yoda

I will draw on this many times in future Now Moments, as well as my theatrical training that helped me to formulate my Now Moments to bring you into a better appreciation for living life in the fullest Now.

I encourage you to become part of the Now Moment community by signing up for the newsletter and have the post sent directly to your inbox in those future Now Moments.

It will be a gift of living that you glean from them as we share our journeys together.

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DA Southern is a Now Moment coach, teaching the spirit of living in Now Moments with the principles he experienced during over 30 years as an actor and director in live theatre. DA coaches his clients to rid life of limiting beliefs that have kept them from achieving miracles in all areas of their life by embracing the beauty of this Now Moment with a renewed passion for life. If you desire one-on-one coaching contact DA Southern @ directyourownlife@gmail.com