Can we be successful by simply just being there? In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell says that’s a big part of who is successful. Woody Allen has said that 80 percent of life is just showing up. And of course, Chance the Gardener (who becomes Chauncey Gardiner in the course of things), the main character of the novel Being There, is the epitome of what can happen when a person lives only in the moment.

For those of you unfamiliar with Jerzy Kosinski’s novel (which was made into a film starring the great Peter Sellers) Chance is a simple man who, after living in a rich man’s estate his entire life tending the garden, is turned out into the world when the old man dies. He wanders aimlessly for a while, then through a series of benign misunderstandings, each of which builds on the other, becomes wealthy and in line for the United States presidency. The film ends with an image of Chance walking away – on the water. The ending quote, “Life is a State of Mind” says it all.

No one told him that life could be filled with danger, roadblocks and curveballs. What if we had also not been let in on that not-so-great secret?

Is it possible that all we need to succeed is to be there? That perhaps we just get in our own way to success?

Certainly, we are all taking fewer risks these days, but is that the wise choice? And what about choices; what is their role in living life in the moment? Last month I faced choices that brought up questions about the past and the future. In the haze of all the “what ifs” what finally brought me calm was realizing that the choices we make are based on the best information we have AT THAT MOMENT. So we make the choice and go forward to be in the in the next moment, and the next moment.

Believe that things are meant to go right. Believe that we are where we are supposed to be right now. And if get the nagging feeling you should be doing something more, or be somewhere else, you’re probably right. Change doesn’t begin when everything is perfect. It begins now. It begins when we really show up.