Tip: Today is a new day. Nothing has been written. Nothing has been done. It is you and new possibility. Yesterday is gone. Anything that was done wrong is history. Anything that was done well is part of that same history. So, now release it. Beginning again is a great freedom.

Living in the present is a challenge. It is also a gift. We don’t deserve it. We certainly have not created it. Yet, it is ours. We are able to do with it as we choose. And, therein lies the challenge. We must choose. There is a tendency to dwell on yesterday. So much we could have done differently. So much we would like to change. Maybe some things we regret. Great memories we would like to relive. Great victories. Great moments of accomplishment. Choosing to spend too much time dwelling upon the past is really a waste of the gift we have been given in the present. We can’t change anything about the past. Nor, can we relive it. So, spending a great deal of time in it seems not wise.

Then, there is the future. So much to plan. So much to fear. Spending too much time in the future is in the same family as spending time in the past. We can’t secure it. We can’t control it. So, what keeps us so preoccupied with it? In many ways, it is our desire to have great “moments” in the future that keep us living in it. We have deposits and plans we need to make. Then, things change and we are left to wonder. Many times we are left with regret of a different sort.

Living in the present is really a product of our relationship with both the past and the future. We need to embrace yesterday for all we can learn and celebrate. We need to reflect upon the future through the lens of experience and wisdom we have gained from the past. We need to blend those two disciplines of reflection together in order to truly live today.

Today is always the opportunity for a new beginning. By letting go of the past yet learning from it, and by reflecting wisely upon the future without getting lost in it, we create today. New history is made. A new chapter in our story is written. Then tomorrow we begin again. We live our present. It is a gift. It can be a grace. Do well, my friends.

Reading Recommendation: The Present, Spencer Johnson

Jill was featured in the April 2011 issue of Gainesville Today

From the April 2011 issue of Gainesville Today:

Jill Nash has the best of both worlds—but not in the traditional sense. Her many worlds connect in a seamless fashion. She lives each day like it’s a beautiful Saturday afternoon, and she strives to share this mind-set with the community around her.

Nash is the owner of Advantage Advertising & Promotions, a fullservice advertising agency that specializes in media ad campaigns, motivational speaking and seminars.

She is also the founder of Women Of Influence, a nonprofit organization that hosts monthly luncheons and dinners with speakers focusing on living a life of passion and purpose.

“I believe that God inspired me to encourage people to discover and take steps in their business and personal dreams and visions,” she said.

It is not just through these monthly events that Nash finds the opportunity to inspire others. She recalled one afternoon in which her love for her advertising agency and nonprofit organization overlapped, as they so often do. An Associate Vice President from a new bank in town invited her to lunch. Nash asked the AVP what her passion was and what steps she was taking to pursue it. Though she answered that she was passionate about encouraging wellness throughout the community, she couldn’t answer how she was pursuing this passion.

Nash received a letter shortly after their lunch encounter. It stated: I just wanted to thank you for saying those words. Although you may not realize the impact it had on me, I hope you know that it truly touched me and may lead me down a path I would have never thought possible.

Nash spent 12 years in advertising sales, but she took time off to raise her family. She was at a meeting at her children’s school, The Rock School, and came up with an ad campaign. Shortly thereafter, she started her own agency—and the rest is history.

“At my job, everyday is an adventure,” she said. “Whether I am with a business owner to hear their story, working on a seminar for our community, writing a TV commercial or planning a media buy—it is all fun and rewarding.”