{"id":5237,"date":"2012-01-11T15:28:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-11T19:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/?p=5237"},"modified":"2012-01-11T15:28:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-11T19:28:00","slug":"just-pay-attention-please","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/2012\/01\/just-pay-attention-please\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Pay Attention, Please"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/em><\/p>\n

After a career in the insurance industry, Dave left to start his own business. Unfortunately, he chose an enterprise that seemed to be financially promising, but didn\u2019t really come from his heart.<\/p>\n

After two years, the business folded\u2014and Dave was ready to pay attention to the dream that had nagged him for years.<\/p>\n

What really excited him was the idea of doing seminars and speeches. In fact, he recalls, he spent years going to see every speaker he could.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure I ever heard much of what they said,\u201d he confesses, \u201cbecause I was always so busy watching how they delivered their message\u2014and I kept wishing it was me on the stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Dave discovered, we may find our dream by paying attention to someone who is living theirs.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been doing housework for as long as I can remember. As the oldest of five children, I was handed a mop early on.<\/p>\n

While I would never pretend to love cleaning house, I do love the outcome so I do my best to focus on the results I\u2019m going for on housecleaning days.<\/p>\n

My daughter, on the other hand, decided it makes more sense to turn housecleaning chores over to professionals. On a visit to her home, I watched in amazement as the cleaners came through her house and had it sparkling in no time.<\/p>\n

What really grabbed me was that these professionals approached it in a completely different\u2014and far more efficient\u2014way than I had ever done.<\/p>\n

I paid as much attention as I could without interfering with their work and I\u2019ve adopted \u00a0many of their methods.<\/p>\n

Everyday millions of people get up to do their work. A handful of\u00a0 them will do it with excellence, joy and delight. Whether they\u2019re fixing a leaky faucet or performing a concerto, when you see such a person, pay diligent attention.<\/p>\n

Open your heart and mind to fully appreciate their performance. You don\u2019t even have to analyze what they\u2019re doing or how they do it.<\/p>\n

You may, however, silently affirm that you want to deliver your goods and services with as much passion as you see them doing. By noticing and appreciating excellence in others, you expand your own capacity to produce it.<\/p>\n

The January 16, 2006 issue of Time<\/em> magazine had a special section on How to Sharpen Your Mind. One of the articles in this section was a profile of financial guru Suze Orman who has built an information empire as an author, columnist, speaker and TV personality.<\/p>\n

So she must be a multi-tasker to accomplish all this, correct?<\/p>\n

Not at all. Orman is a master at focusing on one thing at a time. \u201cI came to this conclusion after watching the way racehorses win,\u201d she says. \u201cThey come out of the gate with blinders on and go for the finish line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orman does the same. \u201cI don\u2019t care what my competition is doing, I don\u2019t care how their books are selling. All I care about is what I do, and I do absolutely nothing else while I am doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reason why we fail to see much of the excellence around us or fail to focus like Suze Orman does is that we live in a world that\u2019s loaded with distractions. Cellphones ring,, sirens blare, traffic and airport noise increases every year, and our attention is diverted without our even noticing.<\/p>\n

While we may not be able to eliminate every distraction, we can practice paying closer attention to the things that inspire or inform or teach us\u2014and lower the volume on distracting things.<\/p>\n

Do so and you\u2019ll be enhancing your capacity to focus.<\/p>\n

The rewards are great as Danny Gregory points out\u00a0 The Creative License<\/em><\/strong>. He writes, \u201cThe world is always full of\u00a0 opportunity, of possibilities, of stimuli, of pots of gold.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you finally start to look around, to see clearly, to live in the now and dump your baggage, you can\u2019t help but notice. When you notice the world, you notice it noticing you.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou hear lyrics to songs you used to fast-forward through. You read poems carved in monuments. You open your fortune cookies. Small wonder the world suddenly seems to be flowing your way. It always did but perhaps you were too busy paddling upstream to notice.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a career in the insurance industry, Dave left to start his own business. Unfortunately, he chose an enterprise that seemed to be financially promising, but didn\u2019t really come from his heart. After two years, the business folded\u2014and Dave was ready to pay attention to the dream that had nagged him for years. What really…<\/p>\n

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