Neither Here Nor There: How To Balance Presence and Planning?

The primate’s struggle in the age of buttons

One way or another I am sure that most people have heard about the idea of presence.

You’re training at the gym, but thinking about the email you need to answer later.

You are therefore not present in what you’re doing. Instead, your mind is in the future.

Most of our anguish does not come from the present, but from our lack thereof.

My own personal story of struggling with presence is a constant I work on. I have for as long as I can remember had a proclivity for mental rehearsal. Beyond the point of sensible planning and critical thinking, I have found myself rehearsing the possible chain of events for actions to come. As you might imagine, these are not positive outcomes I’m fretting - they’re the negative “what ifs”.

I had to come up with a balance that would allow me to be present in my life, but to plan sufficiently for the future. You see, to be totally present is our default state - the hunter gatherer is near totally present with the comings and goings of the given day. What a life that would be, similar to that of a well cared for dog.

But that is not the world we live in. We live in a modern world, faulty as it may be, that requires preparation.

How then to balance the two - presence and planning?

Decisivness.

Plan, think, consider, and strategize for what requires it - but no more.

Any further worry, rumination, or dwelling is harmful. If things change and require you to as well, you will. If they don’t, then follow course.

Easier said than done. It’s something I make progress on every day, as I am sure many others do as well. If you don’t trust in my take on this, the presence guru Eckhart Tolle has YouTube videos about it (but I came up with it independently).

A final note that I often remind myself - this is all we have. Yes, we’ll plan and prepare for the future… we hope for. Remember that - we hope we are fortunate enough to be in the position to realize those plans we’ve made. The future is not guaranteed, much as we walk around assuming so. Do you believe that anyone that’s ever had an aneurysm, lethal car accident, or other seemingly random calamity got a warning? Do you think they knew that on that given morning there time was to be up later the same day?

No. There’s no warning. All we have is right now (gets back to a previous newsletter about how would you feel if someone told you your time is up).

Presence is living. Living is presence.

Sincerely,

Jacob

P.S. Less than 2 months until my next trip - newsletter subscribers will get to know first.