Our daily lives can be overwhelming and extremely stressful at times. We're busy trying to do so many things at once.

Not only do we tend to forget where we’ve put things, we even drive to work and forget how we got there or eat a quick meal without tasting one bite.

As John Daido Loori once said, "If you miss the moment, you miss your life." What have you been missing?

Most of us have lost touch with being present in the moment. Our days pass while our minds are elsewhere.

I too have misplaced keys, or found myself standing in the kitchen trying to remember why I went into that room. We all lose moments. The question is, how can we minimize those moments? (Notice that I said “minimize”, not “eliminate”. That's because I don’t believe we can truly be present in the moment at all times.)

Being present in the moment is hard, what with all the distractions, worries, and stress we face daily.

Leo Babauta has written a very helpful article called "11 Easy Ways You Can Fit Mindfulness into Your Busy Life". Check out this article for ideas on how you can practice being present in the many moments of your life.

We'd like to also suggest that you try using a "Daily Planning Worksheet". A powerful way of keeping your attention focused is to plan your priorities. This worksheet will help you do that.

We always love to hear from our readers and people who put what we suggest into use. That's why we were grateful to receive an email one day from a person who tried out the "Daily Planning Worksheet". Here's what she said:

Last week I checked out your email and printed off the “Daily Planning Worksheet” and thought I would give it a try. I copied yellow ones for my company work and pink ones for my volunteer work and left the white ones for my “own” work. I put them all in a binder, collected all the loose papers off my desk, out of my purse for each project or “must do” items and filed them in behind the appropriate worksheets. I took half an hour and filled out the worksheets on what needed to be done over the next while on each of those sheets.

Yesterday, I had a revelation…. I walked into my office in the middle of the day and my desk was clean! … Yup, clean and it looked organized… This was a bit amazing to me! I took a moment to reflect and lo and behold all that stuff that usually gets spread around, piled in little piles and gets shuffled from here to there… was all in the binder with my worksheets.

She added a humorous note at the end of the email:

P.S. Got any tricks on how I can stop losing my glasses?

Call to Action:

For the next week, ask yourself this question every day: How present emotionally and physically am I in this moment? Rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 not being present and 5 being fully present. Track your progress.

At the start of each day, set a new intention to be present. Watch that intention transform your life.

The best is yet to come. It starts with you.

Your friends,
The UpCloseTeam