It's the Little Things That Count

Life is coming at us so fast these days; it often takes all our attention and energy just to get through our waking hours. As a result we may find ourselves taking rote or unaware actions just to get through the massive amount of tasks we have planned. It’s a warrior’s challenge to teach ourselves how to put our attention on each and every task we do, and make sure each action we take is executed with our full awareness.

You might be thinking; “Well, why should I put attention on things that are not important? I need to get a lot done and the little stuff just doesn’t matter. I have to prioritize!” Indeed! You do have to prioritize - that is truth. However, what normally has our attention most of the day is our incessant internal dialogue. In between listening to our constant thinking we put attention on outer matters. But – imagine what would happen if your mind was quiet all day. You would be putting most of your attention on your outer reality and life, rather than your thinking.

The result of that change in your attention would be extremely significant. First; you would be filling your mind with positive actions rather than conflictive thinking. Remember – what you think is what you create, so just that one change of focus would have profound effects on your reality. Second; each action you’d take would be fully imbued with your personal power. For most of us, our attention is divided between our thinking and our actions, so our personal power is being divided as well. Some of our power is diverted into thinking and the emotional reactions that result from our thinking. The rest of our power is going into focusing our attention on the task at hand and the energy needed to complete that task. Dividing our personal power in this way is not impeccable from a warrior’s point of view. Third; your actions would become filled with mindfulness. In other words, without any distractions, your attention would be fully focused on what you were doing or saying which would in turn cause your whole being to be in the moment, present and aware. When we take action with mindfulness, those turn out to be our best actions, our most creative and beautiful.

An example of this as it relates to my own life may be helpful for you to understand these ideas. I used to be a surgeon, and when I operated my attention was so focused on my surgery that the operating room could explode and I would still be working! You might say that this is appropriate action as we always hope that our doctor is totally focused on us rather than being focused on his or her internal dialogue and issues! The bottom line here is that everything is important in our lives (or nothing for that matter because everything in this reality is equal). The problem is that we cannot see the truth of our reality because we have already pre-judged what we believe is important or not in our lives. We have no way of knowing the full action and reaction of anything we do and say.

We are so limited in our human perception that we are lulled or fooled into believing that our actions end with the immediate reactions that we can perceive. As warriors we strive to be in the present moment 100%, not in our minds. We know that attention is the key – and we take responsibility for what we create in life with that gift. We don’t waste our personal power and we don’t assume that the little actions are less important that the big actions just because our programmed mind tells us so. Tibetan Buddhist s say: “Let your view be as vast and expansive as the sky. And let the mindfulness of your actions be as fine and precise as a grain of sand.” And that my friends, is the way to create the most beautiful reality.