I was fortunate enough to be travelling back from Bali recently where I spent a fantastic couple of weeks on an entrepreneurial retreat….
On the plane on the way back I settled into watching a film which had the base premise of time travel. The men in the family had the ability to travel in time and age 21 the sons where told of this ability by their father…
The film had the usual hi-jinks you could imagine with a young man suddenly finding he had the ability to re-live events and do things differently…
As the film progressed things became more poignant as he both became a father for the first time and his dad became ill…
He realises that he cannot travel back beyond the point of his children’s birth and that as a result a point arrives in the film where he will no longer be able to travel back in time and re-live events with his Dad…
This stirs up some positive emotion on both sides as they say goodbye and his Dad passes on one last pearl of wisdom…
He says to his son that the best way he found to use their unique ability is to live the day for real initially and then at the end of the day to re-live it and notice the opportunities to LIVE!
My favourite moment in the film is where after his father has passed the son does this for the first time…
He crawls into bed after a tough day and when asked by his wife how the day was he says stressful…
He’d had a big presentation that day which had consumed his thoughts all day after which he felt absolutely shattered…
They are just about to drop off to sleep when he remembers his fathers advice…
He travels back in time to re-love the day and something amazing happens…
He notices the beautiful smile of the lady serving him coffee…
He notices the gorgeous morning sunlight as he leaves his house and the kind person who holds the door for him on the train…
He notices the humour of his colleague and the opportunity to make light of a situation he hadn’t seen before…
He notices the ridiculous ego-ic behaviour of some of his colleagues in a meeting and spots the opportunity to be light hearted and make fun of it rather than take it personally…
When he gets into bed that evening he is asked again by his wife how his day was…
“Oh very stressful he says with a smile on his face, I think I need help to relax”
The day ends in a very different way and he feels he has learnt something huge (one final lesson from his Dad)…
The film ends with the son now giving up his need to travel back in time as he has practiced so much he has learnt simply to embrace every moment as it is…
In our life of course we don’t get the opportunity to travel in time and the danger for all of us is that we spend too much time living in our heads (thinking about the future or past) rather then being present…
Happiness, love, joy, peace and all the good things in life can only ever be found in the present moment…
So the next time you find yourself not feeling good (it will happen) take the time to use that emotion as a signal to bring yourself back to the present moment and notice what happens to your experience….