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Living in the moment – it’s all in your head

May 27th, 2007 by Kenric

I think it’s human nature to think, worry or dread the future.  I was at a seminar a few months which brought up many points about how we think.  Here is one that I found intriguing.

Most of us who work in an office or small cube just can’t wait to get away and go on vacation.  However, is it really the being in the cubicle that is causing your bad mood or is it all in your mind?  Imagine that it’s Friday, 4:30pm and you have a 1 week vacation in Hawaii which starts on Saturday.  What is your mood during this time?  Looking forward to a vacation and leaving work would put me in a good mood.  You’re probably in a great mood as you turn on your email auto-responder, change your voicemail greeting, etc…  But think about it, your physical surroundings have not changed.  But you are so happy, sitting in your crappy cube.

It’s 7 days later, you are on the beach in Hawaii and it is your last day here.  You hear someone mention the checkout time tomorrow.  You begin to think about the backlog of work, the hundreds of emails and voicemails that you need to answer on Monday.  Now, your mood shifts and you’re sad.  So now, you are sad but you’re sitting on a beach in Hawaii.

In both cases, your mood was opposite of what you’d expect in relation to your physical location.  Many times we don’t live in the moment.  We are living in the future but we don’t know it.  I don’t think this is particularly good or bad, I just think it’s very interesting once you are aware that you’re doing it.

Hope this gets you thinking about your moods!

Posted in Personal Development | 3 Comments »
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