The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur

July 31Encounter with Reality

I am not afraid that I shall exaggerate the value and significance of life, but that I shall not be up to the occasion which it is. I shall be sorry to remember that I was there, but noticed nothing remarkable,—not so much as a prince in disguise; lived in the golden age a hired man; visited Olympus even, but fell asleep after dinner, and did not hear the conversation of the gods.

Henry David Thoreau—Familiar Letters (1894)

Be present or you'll miss your life. You'll miss your shot at being anything close to a self-reliant entrepreneur. Every self-help book and self-care blog and self-improvement podcast is telling us this.

So why are we still missing it?

You see, those external forces, work, the Internet, social media, kids, your nonstop brain aren't the problem at all. It's how your brain thinks about and processes or automates them that's the problem.

And that's the power of the present moment, those external forces of the past or even tomorrow's aren't there.

Staying present takes a ton of practice. We've spent years practicing the opposite, so that makes sense, right?

Maybe you could set up hourly alarms as a reminder to snap back into the present, create a twice daily mindfulness ritual—something as simple, yet goofy, as paying attention to every step you take on your way to the restroom.

Your automated brain—the same one that tells you to breathe without you needing to pay attention—is working against you, and you have to find ways to ...