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Hey reader
how are you? Now consider how you're really doing? Truthfully.
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I recently heard a podcast discussing micro-stresses with Rob Cross. He noted how stuff in our lives piles up and it's not just the big things that create the stress in our lives. It got me to thinking about my micro stresses and what I might do to alleviate those that can pile up. It had me contemplating my mediation practice. Being better at it, or at least more consistent.
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Then this happened recently when mediating...
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A thought disturbed my mindfulness. Not necessarily a biggy, it happens all the time.
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Quick aside for non-meditators: our thoughts regularly interrupt meditation, we're thinking machines. The practice of meditation is less about undivided focus and more about noticing distraction, and returning to your focus.
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Back to focus on my observation.
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That day, I couldn't shake the interrupting thought. I'd noticed it was nigh on impossible for me to focus on multiple senses - eg, noticing sounds, my breath and bodily sensations. I can notice two simultaneously, tops, or probably not. For example, observing a sound and the feeling of the breath in my nostrils, if at all.
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Even when intentional. Removing all distraction and limiting my focus. It was impossible to broaden my focus without losing it.
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A sudden flash of recognition. If I can't do it with something as simple and intentionally focussed as meditation, how could I possibly think I can split my focus in my work?
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An obvious yet still revelatory light, blinding me in the still of the moment.
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Albeit not great for that session of meditation.
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So I'm considering where my attention is at this week.
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where is your attention at?
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There's always a lot going on.
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Many many small things. Some big ones.
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Text and WhatsApp messages, emails from all over, to-do lists, voicemail from a client, meetings, Instagram mentions, a proud child with a drawing, wilting plants, shopping to be done, and so on.
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All wanting to spend our time and attention.
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What can you afford to spend? What gives you the greatest return on your time?
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I'll leave it to David Foster Wallace, to explain further.
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“Twenty years after my own graduation, I have come gradually to understand that the liberal arts cliché about “teaching you how to think” is actually shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea: Learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed.”
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How have you set up your life to maximise your good choices around what you choose to pay attention to?
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Let's chat
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At unmeasured I take the argh out of architectural practice.
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Helping architects rethink and find joy in their practice.
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I'd love to hear your story. Book a free 30 minute chat now.
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What else is going on at unmeasured?
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recent useful blog posts...
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Architects possess an extraordinary array of skills. Many, but not all, are either taught at uni or on the job. There are some that escape attention.
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A simple flip of starting by choosing to learn rather than being stuck with only what you know.
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We avoid experimenting to escape failing. In praise of experimenting, failing, learning and iterating. What to do and how to do it.
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“The biggest risk to productivity is always the same: working on the wrong thing.” - James Clear
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