Be Present and Live the Moment

Project 2: Organize your speech

Objective:  Create strong opening and conclusion

Duration:   5 to 7 minutes

Speech:

Good Afternoon All. I am excited that you are present here today. When I say, present, that reminds me of my school teacher yelling from my childhood days when I used to get lost in thoughts in the classroom “Where are you looking, Body present and Mind absent fellow?”  Does it sound familiar to you?  In professional world also most of us are mind full than mindful in meetings.  Not only at work but in our daily routine also I see people getting lost in thoughts worrying about future where they don’t have control over, instead of enjoying the greatness of presence that is in front of them now which they have full control on.

I want to share my personal experience with you.

One day, I returned from work and picked up my kids and done with after school snack routine. I was relaxing in the couch sipping into my evening coffee, with my little gadget in front me browsing through an article ‘Teenage kid’s behavior in High School?’ on social media. My son came to me with lot of excitement to share about his successful goal that he made with which his team won in the soccer game. I pretended like I am listening but lost in the article that I am reading which he noticed. And he said to me, “Mom, you are always like this, never pay attention to what I say?’. I tried to calm him down and said that I was listening, by that time the damage has already happened. He burst into tears for, me not being there for him, though I was there, I wasn’t present. Then I felt so bad and realized that if I don’t take care of the small thing that lies in front of me right now which is being there for my son to share his memories, cheer him up and laugh with him, then there is no point in worrying about his behavior in high school which was the article that I was reading a moment ago. That’s when I learned I need to ‘Be Present and Live the Moment!’

At work also these days I see several of us get into our little gadgets in meetings without focusing on what speaker or presenter is talking about. Then there is no point in attending the meeting. Just don’t go to the meeting, you will be distraction to speaker and other attendees too. If you have some urgent message that can’t wait, then go outside and do that business. No one can do multi task at the same time, not even a Super duper computer or Superman or Wonder girl. Even when computers multi task CPU does one thing at a time by efficiently using resources at their ideal time. I am a computer engineer, you can trust me on that. Always Be present at work and Do one thing at a time and Do it right.

The method of Being Present is not that hard, it is just that we don’t practice.  Most people don’t learn to be present because they don’t practice. When you practice something regularly, you become good at it.

Here’s how to do to: whatever you are doing right now, learn to focus completely on doing that one thing, pay attention, to every aspect of what you are doing, to your body, to the sensations, to your thoughts.  You can start practice being present every day with a simple task like brushing in the morning to sleeping in the night. Practice, Practice, Practice then being present will become natural.

Yesterday was history make a memory and learn a lesson from it, Tomorrow is a mystery have a hope and make a plan for it. Today, right now, this moment is a Gift that is why it is called Present. So be present and act now to live every moment.

Feedback:

• Flow of thought was natural. Great eye contact. Able to connect with audience with opening questions and anecdotes.
• A bang is missing. Work on to have strong conclusion.
• Practice more to reduce the nervousness.