Focus - Leo Babauta [51]
Some activities I've created rituals with:
Shaving
Journal entry
Walking
Folding my clothes
Blogging
Washing dishes
Making and drinking tea
Showering
Yoga
Weight lifting
Rock climbing
Listening to others
Organizing my to do lists
Photography
Piano
Listening to LPs
Cutting vegetables
Cooking pasta
Watching the sunrise / sunset
Going communication free (Disconnect by going into "Airplane Mode" and turning off all connectivity.)
Daydream
minimize distractions
The ideal rituals happen at the beginning or end of the day. There is a natural cycle of life at those time periods, and, there is less stuff happening at those times to distract you from the ritual. If you can wake up early in the morning to watch the sun rise, that in itself is an amazing ritual, and at that time of day there is usually very little to disturb the ritual. If you're doing the ritual during the day, try to turn off the phone, wireless connection, and email. Even if for just a few minutes you will find the escape incredibly refreshing. At first do the ritual alone. As you get better welcome others to join you on the journey and encourage them to follow these principles with you. To really get into the ritual, and to get the most out of it though you cannot be disturbed during the process.
Jesse Jacobs is the owner of Samovar Tea Lounge and blogs at Real Ritual (http://www.realritual.com).
5: two ways to focus on the stuff that matters
By Michael Bungay Stanier
I'm in a hotel room in Europe. It's early morning and I'm working on my computer, the room lit only by the lamp on my desk.
I stand, stretch, and move to look out the window. And I see two images.
There's the scene outside -- dark empty streets wet with rain. And imposed over that, reflected back from the window like a mirror, is an image of myself.
This is exactly the combined focus it takes to find your Great Work. You need to look into yourself. And you need to see with fresh eyes the landscape around you. Let me show you how.
but wait -- what's Great Work?
Imagine all you do -- at work, outside of work -- falls into one of three buckets.
Bad Work: The waste-your-time, numb-your-soul, freeze-your-brain, sap-your-life type of work. And insultingly enough, it's rarely terrible, just insidious. As Frank Zappa said, "It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice -- there are... other possibilities [and] one is paperwork."
Good Work: The useful and comfortable tasks we spend much of our time doing. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with this of course - except perhaps for two dangers. First, Good Work is endless (apart from Leo and David Allen, has anyone else mastered the email monster? And don't get me started on meetings...) You can spend your entire life trying but never quite finishing Good Work. And the second danger is that it keeps you playing safe -- what a friend of mine called "a mink hole -- like a rat hole but much more comfortable."
Great Work: It's what's left, and you're already hungry to do more. It's the work that has meaning, the work that matters, the work that creates impact. It's the stuff you want to talk about, that you're proud of, that is your own small contribution to making the world a better place.
And bottom line? Everyone wants a little more Great Work and a little less of the rest.
These two quick exercises might help.
become magnetic
The place to begin is not by focusing on others nor on opportunities. The place to begin is by focusing on you and what really matters.
This often gets talked about as defining your values (and it often sounds very important). I like to think of it as magnetizing the needle of my compass. It's all about helping me take a true bearing on what matters so I can best find my way through the landscape around me.
Here's one way to do it.
did I ever tell you you're my hero?
You admire your heroes and role-models because they stand for something