I need my employee ID in order to get into my office (scan card). I never forget it. Yes, I keep it in my car, and so it’s where I need it. But what I mean is, I never get up to the door of the building and realize I don’t have it. Very occasionally (like today), I’ll get out of the car without the badge, take one or two steps, and immediately go back for it.
How is it that I don’t forget? It’s that I’m thinking ahead.
We talk about being in the moment, about “be here now,” about Zen consciousness, and yet, when I am getting out of my car, I am visualizing my next steps. I am visualizing entering the building, and I am visualizing needing the badge. If I was living in the “now,” it would be possible to notice my lack of badge only when I was at the “now” of the badge reader (and then I’d have to go back downstairs). But I never have to go back.
It’s nice, you know, because going back would be a pain in the ass. But it’s sad, in a way, to realize how far I am from being in the moment even in my most ordinary moments.
But you are in the moment, it’s simply a future moment.
Plus, by previsualizing your day, you are crating magick and preventing things from sneaking up on you and taking you completly by surprise. You are able to prepare yourself for things that could happen by preliving them.
I do it all the time. So I know what you are talking about.
It is a dual edged sword in that you also, by preliving it, direct your life into what you expect or need, and if you get anxious, you cause that to happen too. So it’s a heck of a balancing act.
That’s an extremely interesting response. I don’t know if I get what you mean by “crating magick,” though.
I also need a badge to get into my office, and in 5+ years I’ve forgotten it maybe twice…. and I don’t keep it in my car, I keep it on my bureau. I don’t consider remembering my badge part of “visualizing my next steps” (although it may be for you). It’s simply part of my mindless morning routine… pants on, belt on, car keys and pocket knife in left from pocket, house keys and change in right front pocket, wallet and comb in left rear pocket, handkerchief in right rear pocket, cell phone clipped to belt on left side, card-key holder clipped to belt on right side. Glasses on face, watch on wrist…. all on autopilot. I may be thinking about what’s coming up today, I may be thinking about what happened last night, or I may not be thinking at all. Especially if I didn’t sleep well last night….. (I used to have a poster that said “Sometimes I just sit and think…… and Sometimes I just sit.”)
I have mindless routines; brush my teeth, shower, put on deodorant, that sort of thing, but the badge is definitely not a part of that, not least because we only had the scanners installed about six months ago.
Ah – I’ve been carrying a badge of one sort or another for 15+ years now, through three jobs……. mindless.
I’m a compulsive planner; it’s not very ‘be here now’, but it does usually pay off…so I know what you mean. (I’m also a compulsive agonizer over the past, which is a little less productive.) I think it’s probably a matter of balance….whatever that is.
But it’s sad, in a way, to realize how far I am from being in the moment even in my most ordinary moments.
Wouldn’t it be especially your most ordinary moments? For me at least, that’s when I’m the least present.
You’re right, Tom, it’s especially. I was thinking about how there’s nothing especially distracting about ordinary moments, nothing to steal focus.
Except, of course, ordinariness. 😀
Well, if magick is born in your thoughts, and your thoughts control how things turn out when you do magick, by thinking things through and preliving the events of your life, you can create that reality and make it come to pass.
😉
Aha! You actually had a typo. I thought you really meant “crate” and I was trying to figure out the analogy. 😀