One of the more common things people work on in leadership coaching is being less reactive to other people, changes and situations. Somehow they have come to the realization that when they are not in reactive mode, they are more proactive, decisive and skillful.
One of the ways to describe this space in the positive is living from our center.
Living from our center means living in the present. Living in the present is not a denial of past and future.
One paradox of presence is that when we live fully in the present, we actually become more proactive than reactive in relationship to the past and future. Memories and anticipations support us more effectively when we live fully in the present. We more efficiently remember what we need to remember and anticipate what we need to anticipate.
Learning how to be mindfully present is at once the most simple and difficult thing possible. All we do is notice how each new moment is different from the last. Our experience is observably different in each new moment compared to the last. Noticing these differences is the essence of living from our center.
When we live from our center, we live with poise and passion.