Paying Attention

Do you ever stop and notice your own reactions to specific things? What makes you feel good? Write a list of things that make you feel good as you notice them. Then anytime you are feeling down or off center, you can refer to that list and pick one thing to do. I like to call a friend I haven’t talked to in a while. I also love recording the daily motivators – maybe you can find your own version of the same thing? Write a motivating piece. Start your own blog – it’s easy and it’s free! Keep your list there – maybe it will help others? Paying attention means listening to others of course, but it also means noticing myself. All too often we coast through our day focusing on what is right in front of us, but only in the physical sense. We don’t stop to smell the spiritual roses. Do that. Notice how you feel and what lead you to feel that way. Write it down so you remember to do it again when you need to.

Paying attention goes much deeper than just listening to what someone says. It’s going past that and trying to understand where their dialogue is coming from. What got them to say what they said, how they said it. It will help us not to react as much. Someone may come at us aggressively when it really has nothing to do with us. They had a bad day – heard some bad news and it had nothing to do with us. Then we can approach people with a sense of understanding instead of being defensive. We will diffuse many situations before they get ugly using this approach. Instead we will turn negatives into positives.

Always think in terms of “how can I make the world a better place?” And sometimes that can translate to “How can I make this person’s world a better place?”