Almost everything that matters is difficult, and everything matters. ~ Rilke

How would it change the way we inhabit our days if we truly believed that everything matters?

I have been reminded several times over the past couple of weeks about the importance of being wholly conscious about everything we do.

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. ~ Annie Dillard

One of the participants in the Adventures in Seeing workshop this week talked about synchronous interactions, the small things that lead to other things. Here’s an example from my life.

On April 7, 2009, I was listening to the Dr. Oz show on my computer. He was interviewing Seth Godin, one of the most popular business bloggers in the world, and someone I had never heard of before. Godin is also co-founder of a site called Squidoo, built on the premise that everyone is an expert on something and can write about it. Something about this clicked with me. I checked out Squidoo and created my very first page – on my Top 10 Heroes. Fast forward to now – this led to the creation of 130 pages, the experience of a wonderful learning community, learning about blogging and social media, and teaching workshops online.

Paying attention to that inner voice is all important. 

The small choices bear us irresistibly toward our destiny. ~ William James

Writer and yogi Mary Paterson spent forty days at Thich Knat Hanh’s Plum Village Monastery in France and wrote about the experience in her book, The Monks and Me.

One day Thich Knat Hanh asked them, “What are you doing?”  He said that this was the only question they needed to ask themselves to know if they were fully engaged in their lives.

I find myself doing a lot of things unconsciously – aimlessly checking social media and stats, mind wandering as I wander outside, eating when I’m not hungry for food, not admitting my real motivations, etc. I find that my actions don’t always jive with my values.

Unconscious choices can lead us in the wrong direction.

What if we were to be more conscious of every small, daily action – where we place our attention, what we put into our mouths, what we worry about. What if we were to eliminate what doesn’t matter and focus on what does? What if we were just fully attentive to whatever we were doing? What then?

** Books mentioned have Amazon affiliate links, meaning I make a few cents if you purchase through my link. I only recommend books that I’ve read.