“Are we there yet?” I can’t count the number of times I asked my parent’s that question on road trips and how often my own children asked me. I didn’t care for long car rides as a kid and wanted to get there fast. My mother’s answer was always, “We’ll get there when we get there. Enjoy the ride.”

How many times have you heard someone say, “I’m not there yet.” Or, you’ve said it yourself. I certainly have. Clients say this to me all the time, especially when I ask them about their dreams and desires. They light up as they tell me their intentions and just how it feels to be in that place, yet they often disqualify the present moment by thinking they need to be there now. How often do we forget to enjoy the ride?

In The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle writes, “You get there by realizing you are already there.” Think about where you are at this very moment. Every detail. Use all your senses to experience this. Right now, I am sitting in my office with a hot latte writing this blog. I can hear traffic in the distance and the dog breathing as she sleeps beside me. The office is cool and comfortable and I feel the energy flow through my fingers as I tap the keys and out comes this blog. Then I think…holy crap! I work from home! I work for myself! I’m writing a blog for my coaching business! I set my intentions and here I am – the here that was ‘there’ just a couple years ago.

In a culture that says we should do, do, do, we forget to just be. We forget that life is happening in this very moment and that the next isn’t promised. We fear that if we aren’t always doing, we’ll fail to fulfill those intentions we set. Yet, it’s only in the present moment that we can tune into our intuition and know what inspired action to take next. And, sometimes that inspired action is simply to let it be. To let things unfold and allow life to direct us. We are human beings after all – not human doings.

I love when a client says, “but I’m not there yet.” It always prompts me to ask two questions – questions I ask of myself when I feel this way. Where is there? And, when you get there, then what? The first question can bring us back to the present moment and realize that here was once there. To be in gratitude for the here and now, for the intentions we’ve realized – gratitude is the secret ingredient. Once we get there, then what? Isn’t there always another ‘there’ to get to? You’ve gotten ‘there’ more than once in your life, right? When we are so focused on getting ‘there’, we miss the magic and miracles of now. We miss the beauty and joy that we are right in this moment.

Being here now isn’t about dismissing our dreams and desires. Hell no! Our intentions are the creative magic of our lives. However, ‘there’ is never here until it is. We’ll get there when we get there. Are you enjoying the ride?

From my heart to yours,
Elaine