Your present moment – this moment – the one you are in right now – is the intersection between your past and your future. If you let them, your time choices come alive in this moment.

At once profound and mysterious, your present moment is a place of stillness. As you allow yourself to settle in and fully experience the stillness, your moment reveals itself as both an opening and a turning point.

Always, your present moment offers you the potential for deep insight and transformation. But the paradox is that it doesn’t work to aggressively mine your moments for meaning.

No, it’s with openness and stillness that you need to start. I’m not talking about developing a time management skill or implementing a productivity tool but rather about letting yourself experience an encounter.

That is where you need to start, to truly live the power of your present moment. As Marianne Williamson has written:

The present moment, if you think about it, is the only time there is. No matter what time it is, it is always now.

The past is gone and the future has not yet arrived. You are alone with yourself and a wealth of powerful choices as you pause and let yourself just BE in the present moment.

Last week I wrote about living mindfully in your present moment, and one of the things I noted is that:

Living in your moments, breathing in what they have to offer, you get to know yourself. Your wants, needs, and interests are constantly evolving, and they emerge from your moments if you let them.

I’d like to continue and build on that idea today by picking up on an article from zenhabits titled Savor Discipline: Merge the Interests of Your Future & Present Selves. Here Leo Babauta explores the challenge that being disciplined presents us with in our moments. What do we do – how do we choose – when, essentially, our present and future interests aren’t in sync?

The first thing that he does – and I love this – is to frame this as a relational issue. We have our present and our future self in dialogue about whatever choice we’re wrestling with.

Next, he removes the self-critical component that so often trips us up and keeps us stuck by suggesting that we treat this conversation as an exchange between two friends.

Imagine you were going to lunch with your friend, and you had to decide where to eat. You each have different preferences. Choosing one over the other – going to Japanese food (your friend’s preference) instead vegan Mexican (yours) – isn’t fair. So maybe you pick a third choice that you both like (a place that serves sushi burritos, perhaps). Or maybe you choose this time, and your friend chooses the next time. Either way, both are happy.

You pause, in your present moment, and your present and future self work out a compromise. As soon as you pause, you are introducing an element of mindfulness. This, in and of itself is transformative, no matter what you decide.

And of the options available, Savor Discipline is a path that opens new doors that your present and future self hadn’t even known existed. I’ll explore this exciting option further in my next post, so stay tuned.

And in the meantime, here’s to your time success!

Right, folks, listen up. Father’s Day falls on Sunday 17th June. Is your dad, or a dad you know, always there for you when – and when you don’t – need him? Then don’t plump for the same old, same old socks and ties. Surprise your unsung hero with some thoughtful bits n’ pieces, a personal gift straight from the heart on Father’s Day…

Tell daddy dearest he’s the bee’s knees and set your sentiments in stone with personalised Fathers Day gifts. Here are our top 10 faves…

10. Father’s Day Hamper

Make Dad’s day by presenting him with a hamper containing all his edible favourites. You can get your mitts on exclusive Father’s Day hampers including a bottle of his favourite tipple – be it red wine, white wine, malt whisky or champagne – together with an assortment of goodies, from fudge to chilli nuts. What’s more, the bottle label can be customised with your dad’s name plus a special message. A truly scrumptious Fathers Day present!

9. Best Dad Spoof Newspaper

Tell your dad he’s the best with a spoof newspaper… all about him! You can even upload a pic of Dad so he really does see his name in lights. It’ll definitely give your old man a chuckle.

8. Football Club Book

Whatever team he supports, whether it’s Man U, Liverpool or Tottenham, let him relive the glory years of his favourite team with a football club book. Complete with newspaper cuttings and articles on all the magnificent moments in dad’s favourite team’s history, you can personalise the front cover with his name in gold lettering and also feature his name on the certificate of the title page.

7. Wine and Spirit Gift Set

There are various types of wine and spirit gift sets available, but one of the most popular is the pack containing a personalised bottle of his favourite tipple along with a pair of beautifully engraved glasses complete with his name along with a special message from you. These sets make truly unforgettable Fathers Day presents and you can get all types of glasses, from whisky tumblers to champagne flutes.

6. Personalised Guinness World Records Book

So… the world’s best-selling copyrighted book… is now available as a personalised edition! These books are exploding with thousands of new record breakers and personalised with your dad’s name on the cover. What’s more, two additional personalised pages have been inserted – an intro page and a themed page – which you can personalise with his name too. Whether he’s a petrol-head, jack-of-all-trades Dad or just loves to have the answer to everything, personalised Guinness records books will captivate him with eye-popping facts and photos taken from the ever popular 2012 edition.

5. Best Dad Personalised Calendar

Show Dad he’s the best (the whole year round!) with a personalised ‘Best Dad’ calendar, featuring his name in twelve amazing photographs for every month. See it emblazoned on trophies, beer glasses, golf balls and much, much more.

4. Personalised Chocolate Bars

If he isn’t a footie fan, touch his heart – and his belly – with a delicious chocolate treat on Father’s Day. You can bestow him with a milk chocolate bar, foil wrapped and finished with a colourful and festive personalised bar wrap featuring his name along with a thoughtful message. This bar will be no one else’s but his.

3. Best Dad Mugs

There are oodles of Father’s Day mugs up for grabs to make your old man’s favourite hot drink taste even better on his special day. What better way to get Dad up on the right side of bed on Father’s Day than serving him his favourite hot drink in a mug featuring his name… along with a great breakfast?

2. Original Newspapers

Seeking a novelty Father’s Day gift for your nostalgic dad? Most dads enjoy reminiscing, right? Now, your favourite contemplative dad can relive the newspaper headlines from any chosen date with old and rare newspaper gifts – the perfect gifts for Fathers Day.

1. Driving Experience Day

Give Dad some adrenaline-fuelled excitement on Father’s Day with an amazing driving experience at some of the UK’s top tracks, including Silverstone and Brands Hatch. Let him burn rubber around the track, take the hot seat in a Ferrari or navigate his way through rugged terrain on a quad bike.

What is a great presentation? As you might have already seen on the Internet, or read in books, there are many definitions of great presentations. Nevertheless, they all emphasize one point – a great presentation is one which, ideally speaking, completely holds an audience enthralled. It is not entirely true that only great personalities can give great presentations. To develop great presentation skills, which you will need, especially if you are a Six Sigma professional, you need to understand the anatomy of a great presentation.

Anatomy Of A Great Presentation

Unlike written reports where you have a chance to correct mistakes, presentations are a sort of ‘get it right the first time’ business activity. So, a considerable amount of preparation is necessary to make a presentation great.

1. All Great Presentations Are Well Researched and rehearsed in advance. You must determine how much information or statistics needs to be given in proportion to a plain lecture. Too much statistics defeats the purpose of your presentation and makes it boring.

2. Encourage The Audience To Have Confidence in you at the beginning by greeting them and briefly explaining the points you are going to cover during the course of your speech.

3. Presentations Are All About Scoring Points and winning over others to your opinions. Delivery skill is a vehicle of driving a point home. Statistical information should be presented in logical sequences and in the right doses.

4. Make The Presentation A Light-Hearted One wherever possible but without compromising on the seriousness of the matter. All great presentations are made in simple language using industry specific jargon, but not words that are too hard to understand.

5. Great Presentations Use Audio-Visual Aids for greater impact. This is based on the principle that a picture speaks a thousand words. Even a budgetary speech or an accountant’s presentation can use slide pictures.

How To Give Great Presentations

Begin with greeting the audience; end with asking their feedback and then thanking them. Announce that you will answer their questions later at the end of your speech. Apart from the apparent benefit this provides you, you get their undivided attention to your speech which is vital to your success.

Proven Steps To Give Great Presentations

Whether it is a formal speech to a large audience or an informal briefing, knowing your audience is vital to your speech preparation and helps you to relate it to them. Here are a few steps to making the actual presentation.

1. Judiciously Use Examples from everyday life or from past events to make your point quickly understandable. But don’t let examples occupy center stage.

2. Don’t Forget, Your Audience may have come from different departments within your organization. Each of them has different interests and different levels of understanding on your topic. Strive to address the needs of the entire audience, not just a select few.

3. Grasp Audience Responses that show whether and how much they like your speech. Make midcourse corrections to the tone of your speech if necessary. At this point you can engage them to lift their moods.

4. Extemporaneous Presentation goes a long way to make it interesting as this obviously eliminates the ‘report reading style’ and gives your speech a natural touch. You can use notecards if necessary, so that you don’t forget them.

5. Using Body Language Effectively. Make eye contact with members of the audience. Make gestures like hand waving, nodding and voice. Using body language in this way helps to break the monotony of a possibly long speech.

Giving a great presentations at work is not limited to just benefiting your organization. Use this vehicle to travel that extra mile to reach your career goals.