now

I’m So Bored Of Goals

I’ve always been a great believer in the power of setting goals as they really help focus your mind on where you want to be and what you want to achieve in your life. 

However recently I’ve been thinking a great deal about now. This very moment. And as each second passes, yes, we could be one step closer to our goals, but achieving that is in the future and not now, so in truth we are also losing opportunities to live now, where we are physically, emotionally, spiritually and psychologically.

We cannot control the past as it’s been and gone and although our society seems transfixed on living and achieving things in our futures, it hasn’t happened yet and we have limited control over it. What is happening now, at this very moment, is surely more important than preparing for a tomorrow that in truth may never arrive.

Mrs Away From The Noise and I recently got a dog (Grace) and it has been a tremendous learning curve, as well as being fun, however one of the things I’ve noticed most about Grace is how in the moment she is. Nothing exists beyond now. It’s a wisdom which pets and children instinctively share and is something I’m quite envious of at times.

Clearly, there is a time and place for goals in our lives, but I just wanted to highlight the importance of being aware of and enjoying who we are, who we are with and what we are doing right now. While we still have the chance…

Feature image by Cengizahn Konuş/Unsplash
Image of Grace below by Mrs Away From The Noise

Grace Standing (1)

Grace being wise… and just a bit cute… 

 

 

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How Flies Can Help You To Be A Better Person

I’m sitting in a bar near where I live in the south of Spain and it’s already hot outside. There are already 9 flies circling around in the bar doing their fly thing and other than having to swat one from time to time for getting near my breakfast, we seem to get on perfectly well.

 

While looking at them though, it got me thinking about what we do as people each day. Flies have a justifiable excuse. They are only capable of doing so much. They’re only flies after all. However, what are we doing with each day that we have?

 

Whatever you might want to achieve or even have achieved in your life, we are who we are now. At this moment. Like artists, musicians, writers or businesspeople, we’re only as ‘good’ as our last painting, song, book or deal. And if that’s the case, now is the chance to be the person you want to be and do the thing you want to do.

 

It doesn’t have to change the world as there can be significance in the seemingly insignificant, but however big or small what you want to do may be, if it’s important to you, what’s stopping you doing it today? Otherwise, we’re just flies circling over someone’s breakfast, aren’t we?

 

Header image courtesy of Unsplash/Robert Kresse

If We Were Having Coffee… What’s Next Is Now

If we were having coffee, I’d say that moving to a new area where you don’t know anybody can be a challenge and moving to a new country even more so. Although my Spanish is reasonable, there can still be a language and cultural barrier at times which can be frustrating, but that’s part and parcel of moving to a new country. There are inevitable a few downsides, however there are also enormous advantages and fundamentally, this is the choice we have made and we are very happy in our ‘new’ home in the south of Spain.

 

One of the most challenging things about moving to a new place where you don’t know anybody is getting to know people and socially ‘starting again’ which can be both a hugely exciting and challenging prospect. We’ve made a few (Spanish and English-speaking) friends in the 18 months we have been here which has been lovely, although sometimes there are good days and bad days, but that’s life and happens wherever you are regardless of your location.

 

Moving to Andalucia has been a dream for such a long time and now we have realised it, I’ve recently been struggling to see what’s ‘next’, but the more I think about it, the more it seems to become clear that the ‘next thing’ is in fact now. Right in front of me. Really obvious perhaps, but there you go. I got round to it eventually. In my own time.

 

So, unlike other times when I’ve looked beyond now and today in favour of a supposedly more exciting and interesting tomorrow, I’m choosing who I am, where I am and with who I am here and now. Maybe there are benefits in getting older after all.

 

And now I know that what’s next is now, I wonder what’s next?

 

The Smiths never wrote a song called ‘What’s Next Is Now’, but they did write the glorious ‘How Soon Is Now’. Enjoy…

 


 

The title of this post is from something I saw on Suzie81Speaks. The ‘If We Were Having Coffee’ series was created by Part Time Monster. Share your coffee posts on Twitter every Saturday with #WeekendCoffeeShare

Decision Making For The Indecisive

Making a ‘big’ decision can be incredibly difficult.

Maybe it’s about a relationship that isn’t working, whether you should find a new job or even whether you can afford to go travelling around the world as it’s something you’ve always wanted to do.

Either way, if you have been in this position and have worried about whether you’ve made the right decision or not, then let me tell you a secret.

You have.

You have made the right decision.

For this moment in time.

Perhaps in a few weeks, months or years, you may look back with hindsight and think otherwise, but with the emotional intelligence, life experience, who you are now and everything else in your life having been considered, you have made the best possible decision at this moment in time. And that’s the absolute most that you can do now.

See what happens as time passes. If necessary, you may be able to come back to it another time and look at the situation again.

But for now, let go of the worry.

Let it go.

And move on with your life and be happy.

Where Are We Now?

I’m feeling very lucky today as I’m sitting in a bar outside the rather awe-inspiring mezquita (mosque) in Córdoba in the south of Spain in the last days of December while listening to the David Bowie single ‘Where Are We Now?’ that was his comeback single a couple of years ago. At the time, I remember the music press and fans all desperately trying to interpret the lyrics and the song in a million different ways and some were inevitably quite cynical, especially as David Bowie was 66 at the time and as some saw it, way past his most creative years.

However, for my part, I have now listened to the song countless times and I still think it’s one of the loveliest and most honest songs I’ve heard in a long time and certainly with a new year looming, asking ‘Where Are We Now?’ is perhaps a timely thing to be doing.

From where I’m sitting at this precise moment, reflecting over the last year since Mrs AwayFromTheNoise and I moved to Granada, this song reminds me about ‘now’ and its power. The past is gone. The future is yet to happen. The only ‘real’ time element in our lives is surely now. So, after a rather heavy night of one or two sherries (they’re bigger fans of sherry here than I am…), I’m enjoying this particular moment with some winter sun and a cortado coffee. It’s a good day.

Wherever you are, whoever you’re with and whatever you’re doing, I hope you are enjoying your very own ‘now’ too…

Happy New Year!

Away From The Noise

It’s All About Now, Isn’t It?

It’s a beautiful day and I’m lucky enough to be sitting outside at my favourite bar having a morning coffee. I’ve just started a new book that I’ve been wanting to read for a while. And I’m really enjoying the moment. In the here and now.

The truth is that happiness is for us to enjoy now. It’s in the moment. It took me a long time to see that. From whatever has happened in the past – ten years ago, last month or even yesterday – which have all been and gone – to whatever will happen after tomorrow – which hasn’t happened yet – all of that is what it was and what it will be.

You see it naturally in children who get lost in the moment. Yes, as adults, we have to go to work after the weekend, but that hasn’t happened yet. Let’s all take a moment to enjoy the moment. Now.

So, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing and whoever you’re with, I hope you’re enjoying your own moment now.