Work story: Be present in the present and be happy - 01/24

My second child is now 2.5 years old, and I have closely observed his growth due to work from home. 

He dislikes waking up early in the morning for playgroup and wearing uniform, but he has to do both. He likes eating chocolate, but he doesn't get it most of the time. He likes to go out in the car multiple times a day, but he only gets to go once. He likes to scribble on the wall, but he doesn't get to do it. 

Despite this, he is happy and playful 90% of the time (refer to the photo below where I made him wear his elder sister’s hairband). Why is that so when we as adult are happy only 10% of the time?

Because children live in the present. They are so engrossed in the present that they have no regrets about the past and no worries for the future.

I have applied this concept of being the present in my work on a daily basis for the last two years. For example, recently there were many open items an hour before the client call. My team member and I took the most critical one and completed it in one hour before the client call. During this time, there were couple of instances where the team member reminded me that we missed doing this task yesterday (regret for the past) and there is another open item which needs to be closed tomorrow (worry of the future). 

But I reminded him to focus on task at hand and be present to do justice to the task at hand and savior the moment at hand. We enjoyed this 1 hour of focused work and then sharing with client.

Follow me on LinkedIn