Welcome to Bliss for Business! If you’re an entrepreneur, small business owner, or career-driven individual, tune in on Wednesdays to join Dani on an adventure to learn how to bring your work life in harmony with the thirteen Bliss Habits.
It is so stinking easy to live in a land of distractions. Like, say, you’re having a crazy Monday full of revisions and proposals and deadlines, and you realize you’re hungry, and you want to make quesadillas but your stove won’t light, so you haul out the zippo and a skewer, light the burners, set up the griddle, and go back to what you’re doing while the griddle heats up. With the Zippo on the stove.
Ahem.
Maintaining a mental balance, stopping to smell the roses, whatever you want to call it, isn’t all about savoring the beauty. It’s about being present in the moment, in each action you take. Single-tasking. Putting all of you into each thing, rather than some of you into everything. Making a better memory. Doing better work. Creating a better experience.
And it’s also about prevention. When you multi-task, you run the risk of missing those moments. Check email while you’re on a conference call, and you could miss the nuanced voices of concern about your project. Take a phone call while doing client work and miss the important points on the call and the details in your work. Live-tweet an e-course, and miss the key tidbits that you paid for—and looked forward to. Or, yanno, leave your Zippo on the stove, and almost blow up the house.
Be present in each moment.
Even if it’s just a few times a day, let your actions, your thoughts, your surroundings penetrate through to your core. Live it. Own it. Be with it. It’s self-care of the highest sort. Do yourself—and your family, clients, colleagues, and co-workers—this one favor.
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Hi! I’m Dani. I’m a writer, teacher, business coach, and signal-booster, and I’m on a mission to help you make your business more awesome, more successful, and more you. (With tea. Tea is always good.)
Join me for resources, wicked wisdom, and other good things at daninelson.com!
The simple act of paying attention. Nice. And so hard to do! My latest project: Eating one meal a day (just one!) when all I do is eat. No iPad, no TV, no reading.
I will tell you it’s really really hard and every time I do it I feel drenched in a peace that’s wholly unfamiliar and feels so good.
Thanks for bringing this self-loving radical art of paying attention to me this morning.
Love and light,
Sue
Sue, I LOVE that idea. Also ” self-loving radical art of paying attention,” thanks for putting it so succinctly!
(p.s. Dani is on vacation this week so you won’t hear back from her until her return!)
So glad I could share what you needed, Sue!!
Great advice, Dani! During the past month I’ve been paying more attention… and especially in terms of what happens during the course of day, how I manage things, etc. And I’ve been noticing time, now I really take care of it. Lately I’ve been trying to do individual tasks in 30-60-90 minute intervals… trying to focus on one things, not multitask. It’s been a revelation, and I feel somehow I actually have more time! :o)
That multitasking thing is a revelation every time I remember… it just DOES NOT work!!! LOL Good job! Tracy!
Single-tasking is absolute bliss – hope you continue to enjoy it, Tracy!
Very good advice. I guess I COULD cut down on multitasking and focus more on one thing, you know?
Thanks for stopping by! Yes I guess we all “COULD” huh?!! LOL
Here’s to actually doing it Cheers!
You absolutely can -it’s all up to you!
I think being fully present in each moment is something we shy away from because it’s so intensely thrilling we feel we can’t sustain it on a daily basis. Then again, aren’t we here to be thrilled to our very core and live as deeply as possible?
For my birthday this year, I gave myself the gift of being present in every moment and really diving into each experience as it unfolded. I had more fun within those 24 hours than I’ve had in longer than I can remember. It didn’t matter what I was doing: replying my birthday messages, watching a movie, dancing to music, eating cake . . . I had an absolute blast the whole day and couldn’t believe the difference intentional awareness made that Wednesday.
Naturally I crashed the next day (as you do after intense emotional highs), but I learned a valuable lesson: living in the present is a soul boost like no other. For real.
Thank you for sharing this, Danielle! 🙂
Oooh, great insight, Otiti! You’re right, it is so thrilling and wonderful that it’s almost a bit scary or “improper”, isn’t it? Thank you for sharing!