Why Presence is the Ultimate Key to Lifelong Success (And How to Achieve it) with Sam Morris

Sam Morris is the founder of Zen Warrior Training®. In 1999, just after leading a bicycling trip for nine teenagers across the United States, Sam was in a car accident caused by a drunk driver which left him paralyzed from the waist down. Rather than becoming the victim of his circumstances, Sam learned and created a system of attitude training that brought him more vitality and clarity than he ever had before his injury.

In addition to coaching private clients and businesses in Zen Warrior Training®, Sam hosts biweekly classes in Santa Monica, CA and leads community talks and workshops throughout the country.

Favorite Success Quote

Self-consciousness is a lack of consciousness of the self

Key Points

1. Expand Your Relationship with Yourself Beyond Your Mind 

So often we get stuck in a place where our relationship with ourselves is limited only to our mind and the incessant mental chatter happening within it. 

From this place, it becomes difficult to understand who you truly are, what you want, and what you must do to achieve the range of experiences that you desire in this lifetime.

Your breaths are shallow, your thoughts are cluttered with the opinions and expectations of others, and your truth is being clouded by noise, the ego, and your lack of presence. 

But when you expand your relationship with yourself beyond your mind, everything changes. 

When you get into your body and begin experiencing more frequent states of flow and presence, your reality changes. 

You no longer worry about what you said yesterday or fret about what you must do tomorrow. You are able to simply "Be" in this moment without judgment or criticism. 

And when you're in this place of presence and freedom from judgment, you can be 100% you.

I challenge you to make a conscious effort to get into your body this week. 

Go surfing, pick up an instrument, train parkour, lift heavy weights, do something that jolts you out of your head and into your body. Because when you are in your body and focused on your movements you are present, and when you are present, life opens up in ways that you can't imagine. 

2. Presence Frees You From Your Baggage  

When you are living in the past or the future, it's easy to get stuck in your baggage. 

Think about it... 

If you're living in the past, you are thinking about what you did wrong, or how you could have done something better, or how you said this or didn't say that. You are stuck in an endless loop, experiencing the same "negative" event over and over again in your head. 

This lack of presence eeks its way into your present moment and you begin to doubt yourself during conversations and constantly overanalyze yourself and your actions because you are so hung up on yesterday's mistakes. 

Living in the future is no different. 

If you're constantly focused on what you want to achieve tomorrow and the life you will have someday, then you aren't focused on the amazing life you are living right now. 

And if you have the ability to read this article, you do have an amazing life. 

By getting present, you are able to be free from the bullshit. With presence, you cannot dwell on past mistakes and personal criticisms. You cannot get caught up in projecting a future that makes you dissatisfied with your current reality. 

When you are present, you are free. 

3. Presence Accelerates the Human Experience 

Everything that you do is amplified by the power of presence. 

Everything...

All of the greatest human experiences from creation to sex to friendship to adversity are all amplified by getting present. 

When you are present with a woman, your anxiety dissapears and you are able to reveal yourself to her in a way that is completely and totally authentic. 

When you are present at work, you can tap into flow states and execute your craft masterfully in half the time that it would take if you were distracted. 

When you are present with yourself, you are in tune with your body and emotions and all the lessons to be learned from them (more on that later). 

Presence amplifies existence. 

Get present. 

4. Success without a Strong Internal Identity is Inevitable Failure 

One of the greatest mistakes a man can make is to tie his identity to something other than himself. 

When a man's identity is contingent on his relationship with his woman, his work, his possessions, or anything outside of himself, his identity is inherently fragile and ripe for disruption. 

No one is impervious to the harsh realities of unexpected change. 

From a lay off to a divorce to an unexpected death, there are thousands of things that can disrupt your life and completely wreck all of the things that you now hold dear. 

And if your identity is wrapped up in these things, when they go, so too does your sense of self. 

If your identity is outside of yourself then it doesn't take much to raze your identity and leave you feeling lost and uncertain about who you are. 

By cultivating a strong internal identity, you allow yourself to experience the storms of life with all of the pain and joy that comes with them. 

You experience everything but can be beaten by nothing. 

You are who you are. 

And that's more than enough. 

5. Feelings Are Teachers 

Human emotions are the greatest teachers we've ever met. 

Whether positive or negative, any emotion that you feel is there to teach you something. 

It could be there to confirm that you are doing well, such as the bliss that you feel when you look at your partner, or the satisfaction that comes from a full day's work. 

It could be to inform you that how you are acting is not working, such as the tension in your gut when it comes time to pay the bills or the apprehension you feel about getting your yearly physical. 

Or they could be there to tell you that the path you are on ultimately will not serve you such as the inexplicable "Gut feelings" so many of us receive whenever we are unknowingly out of alignment with our highest calling. 

If you are going to live this life to the fullest and truly embrace this existence, you must learn to feel your emotions, embody them, learn from them... Don't flee from them. 

Never allow your emotions to scare or control you, but always notice them and give them the attention and intention that they deserve. 

Your emotions are your mentors and your guides on this crazy journey. 

Follow them and you will learn more than you ever imagined.