An excerpt from a Life Mastery Program (LMP) group coaching call conducted by David Wolf, Ph.D.
David:
“On our first call we spoke about living our lives so that when we’re a hundred years old we look back
without regrets. It’s about living with a sense of urgency. Urgency doesn’t mean anxiety, it’s not about living with panic and pressure; in fact, it’s just the opposite. When I’m living with urgency, I’m fully present in whatever I’m doing, whether I’m with my kids, reading a book, walking down the street, teaching a seminar, at my job. Whatever it is, I’m fully present, because life is precious and I don’t want to lose a moment worrying about the future or wallowing in the past. When we’re living with urgency, anxiety disappears. We’re not lamenting about the past or worrying about the future, though living in the present may involve planning for the future or productively analyzing the past. It’s actually freeing to be 100% present in each moment. It involves being available with our experience, with all our faculties. We’re talking about a conscious way of living. It’s not whimsical, it’s not reckless. There’s a difference between living in the moment and living for the moment. Living in the moment is with urgency. Living for the moment indicates living for some shallow purpose. I ask that at this point in the program we take a look at the extent to which we’re living with urgency, so that when I look back I’ll have no regrets. I’d like to read something by Martin Buber about presence. “In spite of all similarities, every living situation has, like a newborn child, a new face, that has never been before and will never come again. It demands of you a reaction that cannot be prepared beforehand. It demands nothing of what is past. It demands presence, responsibility; it demands you.”