Thoughts . . .

October 24-30, 1999 - Vol. 2, No. 37

To return to the Index click here. For a free email subscription click here.

QUOTATION OF THE WEEK

There is time enough for everything in the course of the day if you do but one thing at once; but there is not time enough in the year if you will do two things at a time.
—Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman and orator

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS We often hear complaints about there not being enough minutes in the day to get things done. To try to fit everything in, quite often we find ourselves doing two or even three or more things at once. When we do so we really do not do any one thing well. We also may find that we are starting the same things over because we are just not able to get them completed. STOP! Look at what is going on. We eat dinner and watch TV or read the paper. We drive our cars and talk on the cellular phone. We work on some "project" and try to listen--but not very well--to our children. We take a side glance at a beautiful sunset but are really thinking about the uncompleted project awaiting us at work the next day. These multiple things and many, many more rob us of really concentrating, learning and enjoying any one thing. Multiplicity robs us of our focus, our calmness, and yes even our reason.

We say that we do not have enough time, but our time is the same as the great scholars, poets, artists and diplomats of the past. Perhaps it is not that we do not have enough time, but how we choose to allocate that time. Observe yourself over the next twenty-four hours. Do you honor the fact that you can really only do one thing at a time? Do you give your full attention to the task at hand? Do you enjoy the moment or do you live in the restlessness of things undone? Bring your focus and attention to the task at hand, whether it is a highly complicated project or the simple act of watching the flight of a seagull. Over time your senses will be sharpened and, as a great sage once said, you will be "actively calm and calmly active."

Now go to your next project, task, or recreation. Do so without thinking about the dishes in the sink, the other projects undone, the unanswered letters (unless they are your task). You can address them by themselves at another time. Focus your attention on one thing and see the magic that unfolds.