The scope of our attention determines our reality. We create more work than necessary and hubris when our scope of attention extends into details not mattering to our particular task or intention. We create uncertainty and fear of the unknown when our scope of attention does not include the pertinent details for our task or intention. Maturity comes from managing the experience between having too much responsibility and not paying enough attention to the details; between paying too much or too little attention to what the fuck we are doing. We have to fuck up in order to learn. We have to find and examine our failures with the intent on improving so we can adapt our thinking over time. Without adaptation, we atrophy from our environment and are left on the sidelines, in the ditch, or without value. We start down the path of atrophy when we are either paying too much or too little attention to the details of our particular situation. when we scope our attention inappropriate to our situation, we lose value with the people interact with and become a burden instead of benefactor.
We are challenged every moment of our lives with a decision on what to pay attention to. Our maturity and wisdom comes from both good and bad decisions associated with the actions we take and interactions we make. Our personal, social, and work lives depend greatly on choosing the appropriate scope of attention for our assigned or self-given task or intention. How to choose the appropriate scope is the internal challenge. The crazy thing is the scope of our attention is practically handed to us by our environment and the integrated interests of those we interact with. The problem we all face is reducing our self importance or thinking we know what to do, what to say or understanding what will happen. We may think a step or five ahead but without acceptance of the information we are presented with in the unfolding moment simply serves up more failure for us to learn from. Getting over what we think or feel we are is a stepping stone towards wisdom and the ability to recognize what’s needed in any given situation. It’s a step towards learning to ask or to shut the fuck up and listen to those telling us what we need to do. Learning to listen without judgement and the intention of learning from everyone we interact with is the foundation to success. We are not as smart as we think we are. We are not the center of the universe, no matter what illusion and doctrine we believe in. We simply are moment to moment. Our value is determined by what we do with our attention and necessarily how our attention drives our decisions and actions. While it is important to take the long-view and look ahead, we do ourselves disservice by expecting things to unfold in one way or another. Who knows what will happen next. The attachment to our expectation is the root of our issues and the foundation to opening our hearts to new possibilities. The ability to say “I don’t know” and ask “What can we learn here?” are foundational to a valued and respected live. It is up to us to look into the mirror or reality and choose what to pay attention to. It is up to us to determine the scope and breadth of our attention.

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