Ask yourself this question:
What assumption am I making,That I'm not aware I'm making,
That gives me what I see?
And when you have an answer to that question,
ask yourself this one:
What might I now invent,ask yourself this one:
That I haven't yet invented,
That would give me other choices?
You cannot control everything that will happen today.
But you can completely control the person you will be.
I'm trying to remember where I stumbled upon this wonderful little saying (above), but it was definitely meant for me to read! This is a huge issue for me. I am so good at assuming, analyzing and worrying. I need this to be my new mantra, to stop every day and read it slowly, like 3 times...or 5 or 10! I want to focus and 'live in the moment.' I picked the illustration above because it's such a calming image. It's from a children's book that me and Alex (my son) LOVED! "The Little Island" by Margaret Wise Brown (illustration: Leonard Weisgard). The story is about a cat who goes to an island on a boat, and learns that the island is much more than it seems (he learns this from a fish). The pages describing the cat's journey to knowledge are magical, and so are the illustrations. My son (who is 9) tells me he is too old for this book now ha! (but I know he still likes it)
I also recently came across this great blog by Leo Babuata. He is all about - SIMPLICITY and FOCUSING. His writing is simple and to-the-point. Instead of mulit-tasking, he says "single" task. (huh?!) He also talks about how we are constantly plugged in, something I totally agree with (as I sit here blogging and probably checking twitter & facebook next :)) Here is a sample..."Our ability to focus will allow us to create in ways that perhaps we haven’t in years. It’ll allow us to slow down and find peace of mind. It’ll allow us to simplify and focus on less — on the essential things, the things that matter most. And in doing so, we’ll learn to focus on smaller things. This will transform our relationship with the world. It’s not that “less is more”, but “less is better”. You can download a FREE mini version of his book FOCUS below.
http://focusmanifesto.com/
