It’s a beautiful day.  The sun is out, here is a cool breeze, and it is the weekend.  I’ve had a good week – busy, but not too crazy.  Clients seem happy.  Yet it’s hard to relax and fully enjoy the moment.  I am thinking about the next week, the next month, and the rest of the year and what I need to do – putting my focus not on the moment but something else, sometime else, and somewhere else.

This is not unusual.  In fact, it is pretty typical.  I make excuses for myself – that I am running a business, I have a lot of responsibility, I have to pay the bills, I need to think about the future, and so on.  I can rationalize and think of any number of excuses and defend them.  Regardless of my excuses and rationalizations, the bottom line is that I am not enjoying the moment of the “beautiful day”, my mind is somewhere else.  I recognize the beauty and its elements, but I am having difficulty staying in it – focusing on it.

When it comes to work  and my business, I don’t have as much difficulty staying in and focusing on it.  The task at hand is clear and we all have been trained to deal with tangible issues and specific demands that need to be addressed.  And, in that moment, I have to be there or else I don’t get much done.

Staying in the moment when you have the luxury of time is more difficult.  At those times, my mind drifts and looks for something tangible that it can attach to – leaving that moment behind.  I think about the past, the future, all of the things I need to do, and all the things I have not done, and pretty soon, I am in “work” mode.   While many experience this, I think the situation is probably a bit more prevalent among business owners and those whose compensation is based directly on their own ability to generate business.  Nevertheless, letting the “work” mode take over is not the solution.  So what is?

Perhaps, we already have the solution……it’s the same ability to stay in and focus on work.  For me, the beauty became more acute as I focused on the elements that make up the beauty I was seeing and experiencing, at that moment.  I saw the different shades of green and staying with it, thought about the angle of the sun and how the light changes the color – but they are all “green”, even though they are so distinct from one another.  And, in that moment, with those thoughts in mind, I felt deep gratitude that I was experiencing beauty.