I am a fan of the phrase "live outside your bubble". Meaning there is life and so much more going on in the world around you that people tend to forget anyone but themselves exists. We tend to be so focused on the here and now that we forget to look ahead, to look outside our own bubble and see anyone else.
I am just as guilty of it as the next person is personally but professionally my job is always planning ahead. I am always working on something coming up, something for next week, or next month or planning and preparing for something this summer. How do we learn to live in the moment and yet plan for the future.
We get such mixed messages as a kid it's no wonder we get confused as an adult. Don't talk to strangers yet we were plopped down on Santa's lap and told to smile and tell him what you want for Christmas. Though terrified, we obeyed our parents. Think before you speak. How can you do that when someone wants an answer from you right now....mixed messages. How do we learn to balance the living in the moment vs. the plan and focus on where you want to be.
I rode the elevator this morning with this young woman. She must have been in her mid to late 20's. She had a long flowing mane of hair, a white shirt buttoned up, tasteful jewelery and an skin tight pencil skirt that hugged all her natural perfect curves. She was gorgeous. Perfect. She stood there in her 1" pointed toed shoes (her feet will not like her later in life for that choice) and her Coach bag hanging off her arm that held her Starbucks (probably a soy latte) and she looked like.....hope. Hope for the future...hope that something that beautiful and perfect with her blue tooth hanging off her ear, was going to change the world. I could feel the energy oozing from her and I was jealous. Jealous of her beauty, her young-ness, her sense of style and mostly for her sense that she was most definitely going to rule the world.
As I stared at her I thought....I wonder what it would be like to be her for just one day. To be that pretty and together and young...it seems as if the world was hers for the taking. I wonder if I ever had that time in my life? Did I ever feel like I was going to conquer the world and be the master of the Universe? I can barely remember yesterday so I can't really say with any certainty but I'd like to believe I did...once....a long time ago in a land far, far away.
How do you not plan ahead. I like to have things to look forward to. But if I'm so busy planning what's GOING to happen, how will I ever learn to experience the here and now, the unexpected little finds the Universe sends my way. Is there a balance or is it one way or the other?
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