Focus On The Present Moment

“The sound of their voices chanting, ‘stroke… stroke… stroke…’ echoed across the water. With each stroke, the oarsmen fell more into the rhythm of their task.” Alfred Lansing writes in his incredible story, Endurance. 

In a few minutes, these men lost sight of their previous camp, but it didn’t matter anymore. They were in the middle of the freezing ocean. The place where they had spent the last four months barely surviving belonged to the past.

They were in the boats now, and that was all that mattered. They didn't think of their camp, and they didn’t think an hour into the future. They were only thinking of the present. And that present meant only one thing: row… row… row.

These were the members of the Imperial Trans-Antartic Expedition commanded by Sir. Ernest Shackleton. Their ship, the Endurance, got trapped and eventually crushed by the ice of the Weddell Sea. The crew had to abandon the ship and survived more than 500 days in miserable conditions.

It’s an incredible story of resilience, patience, and endurance. You might not ever be in such a precarious situation in life, but just like the crew, you can learn to focus on the present moment. Because nothing else matters.

As you navigate the turbulent waters of life, have the perseverance and presence of the Endurance crew, rowing tirelessly through the merciless seas to escape the crushing ice.

Focus only on the present task. Just as they pushed through adversity, you too can overcome any challenge by concentrating on what needs to be done right now. The past doesn’t exist, the future doesn’t exist. Only the present moment.

Row on, fall into the rhythm of the task at hand and conquer the waves of life with unwavering determination.