° Pay attention to what you pay attention to.1
Amy Krouse Rosenthal | American writer | 1965 - 2017
Everything we do begins with attention.
Beautiful word—attention. It’s not only about regarding someone or something as interesting or important. It’s also the action of dealing with or taking special care of someone or something.
All kinds of joy in there. Noticing. Acknowledging. Listening. Seeing. Doing. Caring.
And we all have these moments where we can choose to give our deep, focused attention to what’s important—or not. To the person in front of us—or not. To the work—or not. To the opportunity—or not. To be present—or not.
Making the right choices about where we put our attention isn’t the biggest challenge most of us face in our daily lives. It’s staying with the right choices. It’s being awake, doing, learning, adjusting, adapting, and learning again. It’s putting in the work—the time.
Few quick and effortless paths lead to wonderful. Waste as little time as you can looking for them.
That doesn’t mean the path needs to be unpleasant, grinding, or painful. It might be at times. But it can also be surprising, educational, fun, and relaxing. Please don’t let me lose you to the idea that living a 212 life is a never-ending grind where nothing is ever good enough.
Living a 212 life is living deliberately while enjoying the occasional serendipity that deliberateness brings. It’s nurturing (practicing & strengthening) our ability to find joy in giving something/one consistent attention and effort and, when things get challenging (real or imagined), in the resilience.
212 is about taking advantage of now.
Keep reading » seeing 212
Revisit » 1 • a spark
° Really, it's a matter of what your attention can land on and fully engage with moment to moment. And that is the secret to finding well-being in this life.
Sam Harris | American neuroscientist & writer | 1967 -
Please email me with typos, thoughts, comments, or suggestions (or put them here in the comments). Please don’t be shy or worry about my feelings. Quick, blunt, and maybe interesting or helpful2 is always welcome.
Rosenthal was a prolific writer. I included her advice above a little out of context. It’s valuable either way, I think. The full context—
“Maybe interesting or helpful” is meant to free you of concern.
I’d rather you risk sharing something with me than being concerned it might not land well. If your thought implies I’m stupid or an asshole, you might be right. If so, I’d like to try to fix it.