imminent—forthcoming, impending
behavior—the manner of conducting ourselves

Imminent Behavior—how you’re going to respond, in the time immediately in front of you. It’s different from future thinking that sounds like: “Next year (month, week) I’m going to do things like: be kinder (find God, give back)”, or “When I have the right job (relationship, home) then, I’ll become happy”.

In spite of that future thinking—no matter how positive and exiting it feels—life doesn’t usually work that way. Becoming requires evolution; it won’t simply happen when you arrive at a destination (physical or non-physical).

Imminent behavior is about what you’ll do with your gifts and skills now and how you’ll treat others now. It begs the question, “Where am I if I am not in this moment”?

If you’re always waiting for the future, what happens to the now? And, the more significant the anticipated event, life change or opportunity (the “I really can’t wait until”) the more profound the loss of the day we’re in.

• What moments are you missing because you’re caught up in the constant humming of “what’s coming next”?
• What moments can you create if you’re intentional about them?
• What moments can you freeze-frame and tuck away for the time when someone you love grows up or moves away or dies?
• What moments can you learn from—times that are poignant and ripe with positive emotion?
• What moments can you birth into reality—dreams that lay dormant in your heart—if your release yourself from self-imposed bondage that screams, “no you can’t”?

We have this minute right now; this fragile, blink-of-an-eye minute and then it’s gone.

A couple of years ago, I used to walk to the bus stop with my granddaughter. Fog often hung in the air so dense that we couldn’t see more than two feet in front of us. Webs covered the boxwoods and the intricate patterns glistened in spite of the heavy mist. We talked each morning on the way to that bus stop. An eleven-year-old girl and a grandmother who was aware that these particular moments were creating a bond that would last forever.

There are times when I think back to long gone days with an awareness of how each, sometimes seemingly tiny decision brought me to where I am now. Steve Jobs said, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backward”.

I’m aware that if I made different choices, my life would not be the same. When I look back at over six decades, I can see where those dots are connected; how what I chose created the life I now live. I can see the moments, that created the days that created the years.

How often do you forget about imminent behavior by putting living fully into today on hold to dream about a better tomorrow?

• Remember that you can’t undo the past, but you can influence your future.
• Be intentional about the moments you want to create in the time you have left.
• Slow down long enough to catch a glimpse of yourself as you fly through life.
• Listen to what your spirit wants to stir in you—that ineffable something so special that you don’t have the language to name it.
• Stop simply accepting the status quo.
•Remind yourself that you don’t need to accomplish something remarkable today; you simply need to be in today.
• Ignore the nagging voice that says, “How dare you expect more; who do you think you are to believe you can create a better reality?” (that’s not your spirit talking; it’s a human-made fear of reaching for the stars).

As we close out this calendar year, let’s all work on embracing behavior that has us living in “the now”. After all, that’s all we really have.
Kay

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