“Every achievement is a bird on the wing.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Mindfulness is useful during tough times due to concentration of thought and energy. A frazzled mind wears you out, but a focused mind stays strong.
What will you focus on today? The temptation for me is to focus on the sensational news. What’s happening today? What’s closing now? What’s happening in the stock market? What are people predicting?
In other words, I’m tempted to put all my attention on stuff that is outside of my control. It’s about the same as focusing on what you see inside this circle.
It’s like giving my daily attention to nothing, while I have things to do. The opposite of this is controlling your attention. It’s about being mindful.
I was drawn to mindfulness in my 30s to focus on one task at a time while also maintaining a state of calmness. Being mindful led to effective action.
And I was at my best when I was dialed in, turned on, focused deeply, and lost in each passing moment. Mindfulness of one task at a time—one thought, one action, one breath—is a form of absorption that tends to transcend suffering and generate our most sacred efforts.
“If you want to hit a bird on the wing,” said Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., “you must have all your will in focus, you must not be thinking about yourself and, equally, you must not be thinking about your neighbor: you must be living in your eye on that bird. Every achievement is a bird on the wing.”
When we are mindful, our eye is on the wing of the bird. And then miracles happen through inspirations due to immersed concentration.
This deep concentration on one task at a time is critical to daily productivity, but mindfulness will also prove to be a useful tool to maintain your steady direction and to connect you with your inner wisdom.
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