In this short motivational monologue, the speaker reframes the U.S. President's Day (February 15th) as "Presence Day," urging listeners to pause and practice mindfulness. He shares a recent personal experience walking mindfully through Morikami Japanese Garden in Boca Raton, describing the sensory details of ponds, streams, waterfalls, rock gardens, and koi fish as a living meditation. He connects this experience to broader themes from his bookshelf—surrender, letting go, and being present—as guiding ideas for daily life. The speaker challenges the audience to carve out a few minutes wherever they are—office, bathroom, bedroom, or outdoors—to simply drop in, be present with their body, and respond to the moment with presence. The talk concludes with a warm wish for a great day and an invitation to give oneself the gift of presence.
Chapters
Good morning, everyone. Here is your moment of yes for Monday, February 15th. Here in the U.S., it is President's Day, and so regardless of what your feelings are about that, we're going to celebrate it a little bit differently today. You can celebrate President's Day however you like, but today, Monday, February 15th, we are going to celebrate Presence Day. That's right, presence. P-R-E-S Today is Presence Day, so I'm challenging each of you today to find a moment where you can take a few minutes and just sink in, right? Just drop in and be present. Be present with yourself. Be present with your body. Yesterday, Hollister and I took the 2 boys to this Japanese museum and Japanese garden down in Boca Raton, Florida. It's beautiful. I know it's been there since we've lived here. It's the first time we've been there. It's called Morikami Garden. It's this beautiful Japanese garden. It's like a mile walk and there's a huge pond. It was a great place to walk and be present. Very much kind of a mindful walking meditation. Everything about it from the streams to the waterfalls to the rock gardens to the pond to the Koi fish. Everything was about just dropping in and being present, being present in nature, being present in your body. And I think for each of us, it's funny, I was looking at my bookshelf today and looking at my bookshelf, it's just this collection. And I could, you know, you could whittle down all of these hundreds of books and whittle them down to a few key ideas of basically surrender, let go, be present. Be the best version of yourself in this present moment and then just respond, right? Respond with presence to everything that is happening. So that's what we're going to do today on Presence Day here for your moment of yes. So find something. I know a lot of you are getting blitzed with cold and snow right now. That's not the case down here. But whether that's in your office, in your bathroom, in your bedroom, going for a walk, Whatever you can do to just drop in and be present today. Give yourself that gift here on Presence Day. Have a great day, everybody.
