Time magazine just had a George Clooney cover story. The story's author, Joel Stein, invited Clooney over for dinner. Here's an excerpt:

He's wearing faded jeans, black laced boots and a zip-up sweater, and he looks less like a movie star than a normal, un-Botoxed 46-year-old unmarried guy coming over for dinner, but he also looks like he's excited to be here because wherever he is, George Clooney's also there. He hasn't brought any wine, and I worry that this guesting thing is just not going to work out. I offer him a glass of red, and he suggests that we sit on the couch, and soon we're talking about real estate, and it's fine, and next thing I know, he's getting a tour of the house. A tour of the house? The man owns a mansion in L.A. and a 15-bedroom villa in Italy! Why don't I just show the Oscar-winning actor the tape of me in my high school production of Bye Bye Birdie? But he's nailing this guest role: "I love old houses like this." "You kept the original stuff." "It's nice to have a guest room." "I love the arches on the shower." I'm convinced that this is just a normal Clooney Saturday, that he spends his nights Charles Kuralting around L.A., knocking on doors, eating whatever's cooking and chatting about politics. Within 15 minutes he made me feel comfortable in my own house. Which isn't so easy when a giant celebrity is over for dinner.

Now here's a Michael Jordan quote from a while back:

Tomorrow I don't know what I'm going to do. I think about today. People don't believe I don't know what's going to happen next week, next month, or next year. But I truly live in the moment.

So, what I'm getting at here is this "in the moment" aspect, this idea that super successful people get that way because they are single-mindedly focused on whatever they're doing at the moment. They're not letting their minds wander to worry about getting the job or keeping the job or getting the girl or picking up the kids or if they'll have enough money for whatever.

My mind always wanders, no matter what. I am never in the moment. Even as I'm writing this, I'm thinking I wish I was done writing this because I have 15 other things I hoped to accomplish today and this post is standing in my way. I've already got the next task half-completed in my head. If I were talking to you right now, I'd be thinking about that e-mail I forgot to send last night that I'd better remember to do after we're done talking.

And then it hits me-these people didn't get rich and successful because they were "in the moment". They are "in the moment" because they are rich and successful. If you are George Clooney or Michael Jordan, your life is not one in which you need to worry about the laundry while you're starring in a movie or picking who to date this week or playing world-class basketball. You've got money, you've got people to do that which you don't want to do, you've got freedom. As the Time article says, "he also looks like he's excited to be here because wherever he is, George Clooney's also there." George Clooney doesn't have worries because he's George Clooney. His worries are over in many ways.

Now I'm not saying rich people don't have worries, but there is no doubt that money takes a way a lot of your worries. And when you have fewer worries, it's easier to concentrate on that which is front of you, instead of letting your mind go elsewhere because you are so overwhelmed with life that you can't see how you can possibly get it all done.

So if you're having trouble being "in the moment", cut yourself a break. I'm not there, either. And neither are most people I know.

(Photo courtesy of zugaldia.)