The Tyranny of Now

I had my eyes closed for a minute and I could feel the energy of the room, hundreds of people thinking about other’s wishes and hoping they’d come true.

How powerful can our thoughts be? What if we decided to unite our power and wish for a brighter future for all humanity?

Today I attended the most inspiring conference I’ve had in a long time: “The Power of Yet, the Tyranny of Now” with Lee Watanabe-Crockett.

As educators and world citizens in general, we feel rushed, we feel the urgency of now, when what we should be doing is pausing, that way we could have a split screen vision: taking the now and the near future into account, both at the same time.

Two images got imprinted in my head, as well as the stories connected to them: a persimmons tree and a motorcycle race. The second one attached to the split screen vision idea, where you have to act in the moment and be ready for what is coming. The tree image made me think on how we invest all of our energy in today and don’t leave anything for the future. How we think it’s a good idea to pick all the fruit instead of leaving something for the birds to eat or allow nature complete its life cycle.

So, I ask myself, how can we direct our teaching and efforts to the ‘now’ and make it so powerful that it transcends into the future?

I suppose the answer is obvious and way too simple to answer, whatever we plant in our students now, will grow in the future; the words we choose now, will define them in the future; whatever tools we give them now, will give them access to their future goals and motivations. Whatever possibilities we see now, will shape our ideas, and their ideas as a result.

We have to assume our responsibility as mindful leaders by showing our students how to connect with others and by building a community of learners. Imagine if we had our students close their eyes and fill their minds with good thoughts for others, how bright would our future be?