Truth is often counterintuitive. Yet truth is simple when the soul is quieted and the noise of intentions are relinquished for the solitude of the now.

It has been written that we need reminding more than we need to be informed. This is absolute if not counterintuitive truth.

Reminders, at first glance, appear a waste of our precious few moments. If after all we are to seize these moments and extract from them all they offer, why delve into the world of repetition?

Say “I love you” once to a person you adore. Then say it a thousand times over a thousand days. Tell the world which will grants you the greatest destiny.

The future you create begins in the now with a decision to repeat with the intention to excel; to rein-act until our dreams become our reality, all the while enjoying the present moments for what they are.

They are the very substance of reality. They are gifts to which a man can invest his spirit and his soul and create a legacy. And they are the building blocks of all things permanent. Without the now the future is without possibility. Without grandeur. Without awe.

We must not cease to prepare for the future; rather, we must engage in every moment with full anticipation for the splendor within the milliseconds and hope that they will unite to form an even more spectacular tomorrow.

We cannot skip these moments. We cannot glide over, fast-forward, or desire an end to what is manifest in our life in this exact space and time. For within our hands is the only time we have as well as the only hope for the destiny we desire.

What must follow is a simple yet monumentally challenging task. When faced with pain our natural inclination is to desire cessation; to move past rather than through. When presented with moments of lack, our instinct is to project ahead to moments of abundance.

This is a necessary step. We must see and feel what we desire in order to manifest it. However, we cannot do this at the expense of the once and present now.

To live life within truth, within the boundaries of the present, we must embrace it all. The wisdom the past grants us. The possibilities and intentions of the future. Both are solely dependent upon the total acceptance of the now.

You must embrace today, this minute, with the adoration of a lover long separated from the object of her affection and reunited for but a moment.

Cling tight. Let the blood rush from your fingers until they turn the purest of white. Hold these moments as the treasure of kings.

Then invest them. Plant them like seeds in the fertile ground of hope, intention and action.

Your tomorrows are the product of the seeds of the present. To see crops without appreciation of the seeds that wrought them is to miss the power of the now and the intention of creation itself.

Your mother is the now. The present moment, awakened by decision, is the womb which brings forth your future.

Honor this.

Greatness must no longer be defined as what one has been able to collect. True greatness is gratitude; appreciation for the exact and present now. Greatness is the skill of extracting everything of value from the moments now at hand. Destiny is created from the wise investment of these moments, and never at the sake of the moments themselves.

One’s greatest destiny does not sacrifice moments for the potential of future moments. Genius recognizes that such a pattern would but repeat itself, and any future “now” would be glossed over in hope of a greater tomorrow.

Genius is awake. Present. Alive.

Aware that happiness is both present and capable of increase; but present nonetheless.

All things we desire are present within the process of decision. We decide what is and what is not. We decide our definitions of happy, sad, wealth, poverty, giving, sacrifice. We alone determine our role. Victim or teacher; both, or neither.

It requires little effort to determine what we lack. It takes an awakening of the genius within to fully realize what we possess. It takes inspired action to use these possessions and manifest our greatest destiny.

Lack is the dissonant echo of false perception. In truth we have all we require in the once and present now. We can ask nothing more than the fulfillment of that which we already possess. To expand upon the existing and to lend it in quantity to those around us.

Fulfillment is the product of intention, which is the product of decision. Decision brings clarity. All greatness is the product of decisions. All lack is the natural result of the inability to decide.

Decide.

Decide to embrace your moments in full. Elements of lack are a trivial issue. What you possess should be your focus. Focus on this and the emotional power it can manifest and all future moments will attract in kind. Focus on lack and all future moments will be tainted with a bitter flavor.

To do something great does not require courage. To decide to do it demands our greatest fortitude. The moment of decision is the most courageous of all. It is the apex of our decisions that asks us to be the most fearless.

Decision is the ultimate expression of the now.

One cannot decide in the future. All decision is an expression of the moment; the realization that we are awake and capable within the gift of the now. The inspired action that propels us into our future on the wheels of moments fully realized.

We cannot attract happiness if we see only misery in the now.

We cannot attract wealth if we are but paupers in the now.

We cannot attract health if we are only broken in the now.

We cannot receive love if we cannot see love in the now.

Yet we can infinitely expand upon every attribute we possess if we but recognize each as present; each as whole in the one and only now.

Energy can only go in one direction. It it too precious to waste. Use it wisely, and with intention, decision and choice.

Deciding to focus on a lack of happiness is to spend energy in the direction of misery. Spend it instead in the realization of where happiness exists in the now. Let this fill your mind, and you will manifest happiness in greater abundance with each moment that awaits you.

Let the wealth and abundance you have in this exact and singular space in time create appreciation, gratitude and awe.

Let the health you do possess expand and attract even more of the same.

Let the love you give and receive be fully known in the now.

This is the secret of true kings; enlightened teachers and beacons of possibility who have graced our existence.

Energy coalesces. Energy collects more of the same unto itself.

We create only what we possess. We manifest more of what we currently realize, embrace and appreciate.

There are no exceptions.

All of this begins in the greatest of moments: the one you currently embody.

From this moment all moments are forged. All abundance is created. All love is given and received.

The antithesis of this is a life lived on autopilot. A life lived in expectation of some thing that never comes. A life glossed over in favor of a future that never manifests itself.

A life never lived at all.

We have the ability to create such grief and loss. We have within each of us the ability to decide not to live. To be great…tomorrow. To love more…later. To decide…someday.

The definition of death is not the cessation of life. It is the relinquishing of it.

It is the decision not to live it at all.

Decide.

Decide to embrace the splendor of the now.

Decide to see greatness in the moment.

Decide to love beyond your limits.

Decide to give from the pool of abundance that all can access.

Decide to receive with joy.

Decide to grasp the wonder of the unknown.

Decide to live a life that attracts your true and greatest destiny.

©2007 Jon Benson

Cross-posted from LivingManifesto.com