I was speaking to the high performance coach of an AFL team. He said that basically his job was to help the players be in the present moment as much possible.

He told me the game is too fast to think about what to do. There isn’t time to weigh up the options in your mind and make a decision. You just have to be in the moment and respond.

What doesn’t work is thinking about what has just happened, or what is going to happen.

I think a conversation is the same. It goes much better if I’m in the here and now with the other person, really listening. Not worrying about what I just said, or figuring out what I’m going to say next.

And actually, the same might be true for the rest of our life too. Perhaps everything works better if we’re more present.