I know that we’re a business magazine, however, there are universal laws and powers that apply to every segment and aspect of our lives. That said, I’d like to center on the universal power of “Right Now!” Right Now! is the concept of understanding that there’s only one moment that you should be concerned with at any given time, and that’s Right Now! Not in five minutes, and not five minutes ago; just the concept of being where you are, doing what you’re doing, right there and right then.
Now, I’ll agree, it’s a concept that is difficult to navigate. How does one go throughout the day not thinking of the meeting at 3:00 PM with the Board of Directors? How and why would I not want to think about the pipeline that just busted five minutes ago, and is spilling ungodly amounts of oil all over creation?
How is this done? Well, first, let’s break everything down into its smallest components. In this case, we want to break Right Now! down into a number that could help us process this ideology. Right Now! occurs every second throughout the day, because every second is its own span of time. This means that I have 86,400 individual moments of Right Now!, everyday (the number of seconds in a day).
Using this paradigm shift to recalibrate my understanding of exactly what Right Now! is, I can now understand how to always remain in the moment of Right Now! and still be able to navigate the plans or failures of the day. Now, let’s go back to the previous hypothesis of why you wouldn’t want to go through the early part of your day, thinking about the 3:00 PM Board of Directors meeting. Consider, if you will, the many individual moments of Right Now! that you neglected, due to the preoccupation with your Board meeting. Perhaps you missed a pivotal moment to interact with your Marketing Director, who wanted a moment with you to discuss a project that may have an immediate impact on your international market, and which could bring about a significant return on investment and increase the overall projection of revenue for your third and fourth quarter.
However, since you missed that moment by dismissing your Marketing Director, and telling her to hold onto this until next week, in spite of her informing you that, if interested, an immediate decision was needed at that moment, you missed the opportunity to give the Directors of the Board the type of information that perhaps would’ve made that meeting encouraging and profitable. What about the other analogy about the pipeline spill? Instead of your preoccupation with what happened five minutes ago, and whose fault it was, and why did this happen, you need the power of Right Now! in order to harness the power of your intellect, creativity, and decisive leadership to rectify this urgent situation. Those that dwell on five minutes ago, will remain behind, and never be able to get ahead and on top of a pressing situation.
Right Now! you are reading this column. You’re not answering email. You’re not doing your monthly accounting, you’re simply choosing Right Now! to be right here, peacefully reading your very favorite business magazine in the world (tell the truth, you know it is). As a result, you may have just reminded yourself of a principle that could positively enhance your overall quality of life and business. Put it into practice, and I’m hopeful you’ll thank me for this unexpected, long-winded, and over-preachy sermon.
Until next time, plan, build, and continue to prosper.
Andre Barefield