As Good as It Gets

In the 1997 movie, As Good as It Gets, Jack Nicholson plays an obsessive-compulsive character who is also lacking in social skills. The movie title refers to the character’s coming to terms with his OCD and making peace with the possibility that some things about his situation might not change.

As practitioners of the Science of Mind philosophy, we are strong believers in our ability to change our conditions in life by changing our thinking and way of being.

It’s a paradox, because life is always evolving and yet there is never a time that is better than now.

When I was in Ukraine in 2009, our host, an American woman who established a Science of Mind spiritual community there, shared with us that the people in Ukraine live more in the present than we do in the United States, partly as a result of the uncertainties that existed when the country was a republic in the former Soviet Union.

One day when I was teaching the spiritual principles applied to manifest what we want to experience in life, a young man asked me if that meant we were living in the future rather than the present. It was a good question. My response to him was that when we apply the principles correctly we are always being and thinking now what we want to experience. We aren’t projecting into some far off future. We are making the shift right now that corresponds to what we choose to experience now. Some things may take time to manifest, but we are always practicing the principles in the present moment.

The basis of practicing the principles in the present moment is that divine perfection exists right now. All we are really doing is revealing it. All the peace, joy, or fulfillment we could ever want already exists within us now. In that respect, this is as good as it gets. No matter what is taking place in our lives, we have access to peace, love, and joy right now.

It is certainly easier humanly to feel joy, fulfillment, and other divine qualities when we are at peak moments like right after accomplishing a goal or having something we want manifest in our lives. In reality, that type of fulfillment is fleeting and likely to be replaced very shortly by anxiety or longing for the next accomplishment, unless we choose fulfillment independent of what is taking place in our lives.

The choice is whether we want to live a rollercoaster life of constant ups and downs or a life of more consistent joy, peace, and fulfillment that is based on a choice to live in that state of mind and being.

This is a choice we can make every morning when we rise. We can say to ourselves, “I choose to be at peace today. I choose to feel love today. I choose to experience joy today.” We can say to ourselves before going to bed at night, “It was a good day. I am grateful.” This type of outlook leads to a more consistent sense of fulfillment because we are not looking outside ourselves for fulfillment. We recognize it’s an inside job and choose to access fulfillment in the only place it can be found – within ourselves.

In this way, we can enjoy the peak moments that occur after reaching milestones and we can also enjoy the journey, including when things don’t seem to be going our way.

This really is as good as it gets. All the joy, peace, love, and fulfillment that are possible exist within each of us right now. Therefore, “as good as it gets” is quite amazing. The invitation is to remember and to choose to be happy now.

Enjoy the journey.

Gregory Toole offers spiritual coaching to individuals and groups who want to create and live extraordinary lives. For more information, go to gregorytoole.com.