Now I know that you will take a minute to watch the video again. I did! I also know that you’re probably thinking, ‘How did I miss that?”
It is so easy to miss the thing you are not looking for. In other words when you are too focused on one thing, you likely won’t see something else that happens by.
I’m all for uni-tasking rather than multi-tasking. I’m a big believer in being present to the moment. But if you are so focused on the task at hand to the exclusion of everything else, you just might miss some really cool stuff.
So what’s the lesson here?
Yes focus on one thing at a time.
Yes practice mindfulness.
AND raise your gaze periodically and see what else is there.
Regularly ask yourself: What might I be missing?
Shift your focus for a moment and look at the other side. If you routinely think about what’s not working in your life, ask what is working? If you usually think about what’s working, stop every once and a while and ask what isn’t working.
I’ve started hanging out on Twitterand the most interesting things cross your path there.
Like Jonathan Mead’s blog post earlier this week called The Lie of the Four Hour Work Week in which he challenges our ideas about work. It’s worth your time to read it.
Standing on a spot
It resonated with me because he’s on the same page with respect to perspectives. The spot you stand on or the lense you look through on anything, work included, colours everything about it.
If you are standing on a spot called drudgery, then no wonder you keep hitting the snooze button in the morning. If you see work as just another pile of things to get through by quitting time, then you’ve already quit.
If you hold work as sacred as Jonathon suggests, everything shifts.
David Whytetalks about the three marriages in our lives: one with ourselves, one with our partner and one with our work. What if we held work in the same loving way as our partner?
Jonathan asks this beautiful question:
“With the work you do today, how can you create the biggest positive impact in other people’s lives, while fulfilling your own dreams at the same time?”
That shifts things.
Don’t you love the internet? It connects you to the most amazing people you might never have met otherwise. It starts conversations. It shares ideas. It lets you shift spots even for a few minutes.
Laurel | Perspective | Monday, February 23rd, 2009
There’s a new radio station in Edmonton with this slogan:
Life’s good. Sing along!
Now they are a jazz/pop/retro station that is easy to sing along to, particularly if you are of a certain vintage, myself included.
But I think they are on to something bigger.
Life IS good if that’s your outlook.
Life’s good no matter what is happening. And singing along with life is a darn good way to go through your day. Oh sure, you can do the chorus of “Woe is Me” by Poor Little Whiny Guy but that’s not a tune you can dance to.
Mondays are quote day at loving the chaos so here’s another one from Zen Buddhist teacher Taissen Deshimaru:
If you are not happy here and now, you never will be.
Laurel | Perspective | Tuesday, December 16th, 2008
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.
I love my clients – for a whole bunch of reasons but one of the most delightful is that they say such insightful things. Yesterday I was coaching with a client who was looking at ways to let go of some holiday obligations. You know how it is – the usual running around like crazy, caught up in old habits and feeling overwhelmed.
Then she said:
The holidays are just a microcosm of life.
Insightful! During the holidays…
Do you find yourself doing things out of habit, guilt or obligation?
Do you spend time on less significant things at the expense of more important ones?
Does how you spend your time reflect your priorities?
Does gift giving become a substitute for something else?
Are acts of charity just items on your to-do list?
My client’s little insight reminded me of the Zen saying:
How you do one thing is how you do everything.
Chances are if things are a little out of whack during the holidays – overwhelmed, overindulged, over spent, over committed – then likely in some form they are that way during the rest of the year as well.
Give yourself a little gift.
Stop and consider how the holidays are a microcosm for your life. Think about the activities that are a good reflection of you and your values. Think about the activities that don’t align so well with what’s really important. Now’s a great time to begin planning what simple changes you’d like to make in the new year.
Laurel | Perspective | Sunday, November 16th, 2008
I just spent a few days in Montreal at the International Coach Federation conference where one of them themes was our ability to create negative or positive energy and their effects on others. It’s interesting how life provides real time illustrations to drive home the point.
On the taxi ride from the airport to the hotel, the driver definitely had a cranky outlook. My couple of attempts at conversation were unsuccessful as the driver impatiently weaved in and out of traffic – at one point coming close to driving on the sidewalk. I’ve been in lots of taxis but this was the first time that a driver rolled down the window and shouted insults at other drivers. Everything seemed to be an irritation for him. Definitely an unpleasant experience and I was glad to finally arrive at the hotel.
Fast forward several days to the return trip to the airport. Different driver, different taxi, different experience. This time the entire trip was filled with light-hearted chatter, laughter, smiles and a couple of jokes. The time just flew by but quite happily I could have spent lots of time stuck in traffic with this guy if that had been the circumstances. Two different drivers and two different outlooks on life.
On any given day, which taxi are you driving?
Do you take the time to connect with other people or do you put your head down and get through day?
Do you share conversation with others or do you mutter under your breath?
Do you make negative comments or do you smile and laugh?
Positive mental attitude
One of the sessions at the conference explored the idea that our negative thoughts actually physically deplete our energy and that of the people around us. Conversely, positive thoughts expand energy fields. Your positive mental attitude is not just yours - it is shared with all of us. It seems to me that it doesn’t matter whether you are skeptical of the science or not. Real life experiences show us all the time that being around negative people has an unsettling effect on us. Being around positive people uplifts us.
Here’s an interesting idea to consider.
You can decide how to respond to that negative energy. You can hold a positive thought for this person – a silent prayer of good wishes. In that simple act, you just might increase their positive energy. At the very least least you can decrease your own.
Sending all of you wherever you are happy thoughts for a wonderful day.
Laurel | Perspective | Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
Today our American neighbours go to the polls in what will be an historic election on many fronts. No matter the outcome, a whole bunch of people will end up being disappointed.
Check out a great blog post from That Cool Broad in which she suggests that Monty Python’s philosophy of looking on the bright side of life is the way to handle it.
While we know that Monty Python often has a bit of a warped worldview, this time they get it just right.
From the serious to the mundane, election results to traffic jams, life brings to you lots of stuff you want and lots you’d rather not have. The key to success is always in choosing your perspective or attitude about what’s unfolding.
Looking on the bright side of life is a great mantra for election day and every other one.
This weekend in Canada we celebrate Thanksgiving. I had an interesting conversation with the checkout guy in the grocery store – a young man who explained to me that he thought Thanksgiving was a silly reason to have a holiday.
In some respects he’s right. Like Mother’s Day or Father’s Day or Valentine’s on which we honor our parents or our lovers, assigning “giving thanks” to a particular day on the calendar seems to miss the point.
Thanksgiving is something that should take place each and every day.
It’s often said that gratitude is an attitude. Yes that’s true. Even more than that, gratitude is a habit. It’s something that you do routinely – not just once in a while or when the right date rolls around.
Sure it’s easy to let gratitude slip below the radar when life is busy. It seems that we often wait for an unwelcomed jolt that makes us count our blessings. Gratitude as a habit means that you don’t just have a positive attitude. It means that your actions demonstrate your appreciation for the blessings in your life.
So how can can you practice the gratitude habit?
Like any personal success habit, you need a routine…
Keep a journal each day in which you write down the little or big things you are grateful for that day.
Say thank you more often.
Tell others what you appreciate about them.
Practice finding the silver lining in adverse situations.
Remind yourself that things can ALWAYS be worse than they currently are.
Take delight in gratitude in all its shapes and sizes – from good health or a loving relationship to warm socks on a frosty night.
If you haven’t, it’s worth a couple of minutes of your time.
Seems though that there are some people who question whether or not this video is a fake.
My response?
Whatever.
Here’s a video that tugs on people’s hearts. You have to be a big lump of concrete to not be moved in some way when you watch this video. It stirs our deepest desires for connection, for love, for enduring friendship.
Personally I choose to believe its the real deal.
Just the possibility is delightful. Isn’t it curious that some people would rather choose cynicism and turn away from a heart warming of our collective core.
Whether it’s a fake or not is hardly the point. People are feeling a rush of emotion and having conversations about love and possibility. Works for me.
It’s amazing the judgments we catch ourselves making. Who would have thought that a butcher in a small Tuscan town was actually a renaissance man?
After a long hike through the Tuscan countryside our group ended up at Antica Macelleria Cecchini in the village of Panzano for a pre-arranged dinner with Dario Cecchini. He’s a fifth generation butcher whose family has owned their shop for more than 250 years.
Dario shared with us his philosophy of treating all things with equal respect. He explained that we tend to assign higher value to certain cuts of meat which means that other ones are then considered less worthy. Dario challenged us to consider the inherent value in everything, to treat all the parts of the animal with the same degree of respect. To entertain the idea that simply because something might take more of our time and energy does not diminish its worth.
So we feasted on a meal made from the cow’s knees and shin – a meal that required several hours of preparation to create the tender dishes we enjoyed. Good conversation, fine wine, and to top it all off, at the end of the evening Dario jumped on the table and recited by heart a canto of Dante’s Inferno. Splendid in its original Italian, the impromptu performance moved everyone with its passion.
Food for thought
How many times do we go through our day voting that “this” is better than “that” or giving less time and attention to things that we have decided are less valuable?
How quickly do we dismiss this based on some pre-conceived idea?
How often do we limit ourselves because we have created a hierarchy for people and experiences?
How frequently in our super speed world do we choose quick and easy out of habit without weighing the option of slower?
Delicacies in the tuscan countryside
Dario left me some tasty food for thought. His challenge to treat everything with equal respect has remained with me like a satisfying meal. I find myself stopping to consider what hierarchy I’m unconsciously creating or which way I’m voting at any given time. You never know what delicacies you’ll find in the Tuscan countryside.
