As I mentioned last week, my journal notes from Australia are brimming with the following attributes;
Presence
Present Moment = Wonderful Moment
Slowing Down
Attention and Listening
Honouring Self, Others and the Place
Gratitude
Compassion
Solitude
I believe these to be attributes of leadership. And over the next few weeks, I’ll expand a little more on each of them.
For this week, we’ll look at Present Moment = Wonderful Moment. On the trip, my exploration of Present Moment – Wonderful Moment was almost constant. Now of course it is far easier to be present in a wonderful moment when you’re looking out over the Australian outback from atop a mountain than driving down a freeway late for a meeting, or engaged in confict with a colleague.
What I found then, and am finding still is that one of the keys to engaging with these precious, wonderful moments, is to be gentle with yourself. For example, I found myself getting a little stressed as I drove into Melbourne, and had to cut across the Central Business District (CBD) to return my rental car. I was driving on the right hand side, (as opposed to my usual left hand drive car here in Canada), in very busy downtown traffic, and in the CBD, and nowhere else in the city, right hand turns are actually made from the far left hand lane, when the light turns yellow, so that one does not block tram traffic. I could feel the tension rising in me, and a small voice said to me, “Present Moment, Wonderful Moment.”  Another, louder voice then rang out, “shut up!” (I smile as I recall the internal dialogue!) Obviously I made it safe and sound, and didn’t crash into a tram, and as I walked out of the rental car office, I thought, “now that was a grand adventure!” And then I thought to myself, I needed to be focused in that moment, as wonderfully tense as it was, and that was where I needed to be then. I wasn’t standing on top of a mountain, or snorkling on the Great Barrier Reef, I was in busy downtown traffic, the little bit of stress was in some ways a good thing.
As leaders we find ourselves in stressful situations, and some moments are less fun than others. Be present in all of them, and honour your own emotions and responses to the stimulants around us. In particularly stressful and difficult days, it is imperative that you take some time on your own to quiet your mind, and to simply breathe. It is imperative that you refresh your mind, look at a picture of a loved one, listen to some Baroque music, go for a walk, be present and gentle for yourself. And quite quickly in fact, you’ll find that the stresses and frustrations of the day start to take a more appropriate place in your life; they are important moments, but not the only moments.  A bad day might in fact be merely a bad moment in a series of other moments, some wonderfully good, and some wonderfully frustrating.
May this week be one filled with wonder-filled moments for each and every one of us.