630-484-2336 ben@bedo.org

This simple thought occurred to me today as I was talking with a coach.  She said, “Just be present with your client”.

I can’t tell you how much this drives me nutso.  That’s sometimes like saying, “Just fix the economy.”  It’s a simple request, and yet, so often very hard to do.  And after a while it begins to sound like just some empty, and unobtainable, goal.  “Just Be Present.”  (Of course, usually the person who is saying that to me, I suspect isn’t being very present with me, or they’d see the fumes of frustration coming out of my skull.)

Just like all of our coaching, we don’t simply tell our clients, “Just BE healthy.” or “Just be loving” or “just be successful.”  If it were just that easy, we would just be doing it all the time.  There are plenty of personal challenges, distractions, and all that stuff that gets in the way of our BEing Present.  But my question to you is this:

What is BEING PRESENT?

What the heck does that mean?
How do you do it?

I have my own ideas (and teach some of them in my class) but I’d love to hear your thoughts.

(Of course, how can be possibly BE or DO it if we don’t really know what it is we’re BEing or DOing?  Right?)

So take a few moments and BE Present with this post.  BE Present with your thoughts that are coming up, your reactions that you’re feeling.  And then please share them.
The more we all know, the farther we all can go.

-ben