Being somewhere else, not HERE

So I provide lots of training and speeches and I am notorious for:

• leaving things behind after my presentation - my clicker, mouse, etc. I have done that more than once.
• taking things that aren't mine. In Orlando two months ago I actually did not realize I still had a mic on until I was emptying my pockets at the airport!!!

So, why do I do these things? I feel it is because my mind is not settled and I have little awareness of what is going on around me. I am thinking about the past (How did I do? Did they like me?) and I am thinking about the future (What are the people who want to talk to me afterwards going to say? When is my flight?)

Notice a few themes:

• It's all about me. How am I being perceived? What is going to happen to me? It's kind of a shame because there are potentially rich conversations to be had with people after a presentation. It's hard to listen to others when you are only listening to yourself!!
• I am thinking about two times - the past and the future.

Of course the "now" is all we ever have! It's interesting how that works -- how much of our mind is preoccupied with the past and the future, but the only time we can be "in" is the now.

Where is your mind today? Where is it right now? What are you missing out on by not being in there "here and now"?