How Do You Work Towards Your Future While Still Being Present For Your Now?

“Cemeteries are full of wasted potential.”

The minute I heard those words I froze.

Will and I were watching Owning Manhattan on Netflix, and Ryan Serhant was describing the moment in his life when he knew he would not settle for a legacy less than extraordinary.

At first, my mind started racing: what is my legacy? Is it good enough? Have I done enough?

I started thinking about all my goals and the things I want to create in my lifetime, and felt like I needed to start getting really aggressive to make them happen. 

Honestly, the experience didn’t feel good in my body. It’s definitely not how I want to feel. It ignited fear and scarcity more than excitement and belief. I started to spin out a little, because sometimes it feels like I have so many different responsibilities and things in my life that I don’t have enough time to live up to my full potential.

I feel like a lot of us can relate to that, right?

But then last night, Porter covered me in stickers and crawled into my lap, put his arms around me and smushed his tiny nose into mine. Forehead to forehead with my little boy, and my definition of potential started to shift away from the material.

Of course our potential is our ability to create things and put them out into the world, but it also includes our capacity to give and receive love, and how present we really are for this crazy thing called life.

I realized how lost many of us have become on this seemingly endless search for potential, especially since it is mostly defined as an external thing.

Then I started to ask myself: where does our potential come from, and how do we make sure we don’t waste it?

Here’s what I landed on:

Ultimately, our potential is rooted in our values - what WE deem to be important to OUR lives. 

It’s really easy to lose sight of what we value with all the noise (and projections) around us, so it’s important and necessary to get and stay clear. 

Which is to say: when setting out to create a life that feels good and is in alignment with our soul, we need to be clear on our values. We need to know - in great detail - what matters to us.

And we still want to be present and available for our everyday lives. Which sometimes makes us feel like we are being pulled in a lot of different directions. 

And that’s when we lose our footing. 

We have to learn how to stay connected with our Future Selves WHILE being connected and present for the now and all the blessings we already have. Because when we’re not, that’s when we start wasting our potential. 

I love my life, and all the incredible things I have created, but I think what I love the most is my ability to be present for it. It’s a skill I’ve intentionally cultivated over the years, and something I work on daily. 

And I know that’s what keeps me reaching my potential.

So tell me: how do you work towards your future while still being present for your now?