Distractions

It is difficult to stay focused on task when you are surfing the internet. When I search for a piece of information, I get the information but then I get interested in something else and it takes away another hour of my precious time. It is very disconcerting to me. I need to stay on task. No distractions.

This weekend I have significantly improved my understanding of different memory systems. Recent research has focused on the difference in roles of the striatum and the hippocampus. I have to find a way to include this understanding in my presentations.

Anticipation

I am feeling anticipation for novel creative expression in my life. An outlet for a being within me that needs to speak and is looking for a breakthrough into the open field/court. There is a bubbling feeling of anticipation of things to come that I will not be able to control. I will have to let go and let things happen as they will. I have held back this creative expression for too long and it is applying a pressure on me that is compelling and determined in nature.

Reading Og Mandino's "The Greatest Salesman in the World" , again after all these years, has made think about renewing my determination to succeed. My determination is stronger and getting stronger. I will succeed. I will act upon my feelings of creativity. I feel an anticipation of great success to come.

My time is now and I am going to win. I will overcome my feelings of fear. I will face and overcome the things that intimidate me.
These are my words. This is my fire-in-the-belly. I own my success. Nothing can hold me back if I am determined and dedicated enough to succeed.

Come into my world

Enter my sanctuary

I have a story to share

It is relevant to you

It will help you

Stay here in my sanctuary

Awhile

Listen to the flute and sitar

Calm down

Enjoy the moment


Come here won't you?

I care about you

I do

Stay here in my sanctuary

Awhile

Listen to the waves

As they splash onto

the rocks

Splash ripple ripple


I love you

Come into my world

Making it snappy - boosting your energy

Picking myself up when I'm down is a process! I mean it, it is a process! I wish it was as simple as snapping my fingers.

I mean like in the song "Spoon Full of Sugar" (in the movie, Mary Poppins):

"In ev'ry job that must be done
There is an element of fun
you find the fun and snap!
The job's a game"

How to: Find the fun and snap ?!
How to: Turn a job into a game ?!
How to: Find an element of fun in every job that must be done ?!

Keep it moving, roll with your intuition and stop thinking so much!

Excerpt from "Swann's Way" by Marcel Proust

I've always marveled at Proust's description of memory. Tonight, I awoke in my bed after having slept at 6:30 pm and it is now only about 9:30 pm. I was able to compare how I felt with Proust's description of a similar moment.

"but then the memory - not yet of the place in which I was, but of various other places where I had lived and might now very possibly be - would come like a rope let down from heaven to draw me up out of the abyss of not-being, from which I could never have escaped by myself: in a flash I would traverse centuries of civilization, and out of a blurred glimpse of oil-lamps, then of shirts with turned-down collars, would gradually piece together the original components of my ego."

Perhaps this sleep that I had was a continuation of my distracted recollections, earlier today, of a time about twenty three years ago when I was a doctoral student. The abyss of not-being is analogous to the time-bubble that I had created around me while remembering my aspirations while I was a graduate student. I had traversed a quarter-century to explore a blurred recollection of the person that I was and had returned with regrets about things that could have been.

Narrative Generating Mind Wandering

This phrase has been sitting written on a Post-it note on my desk at work for some weeks now. I have not thrown it away because it strikes a chord in me every time I see it. It is a reminder that the story in my mind can take my focus away from the task at hand. It is a reminder to stay centered in my firm place. After all these weeks of not blogging, I return to the concept of firm place. It is a lasting idea. I don't think that I would recognize the gal who gave that presentation but the concept that she talked about has lasting value. The Post-it on my desk triggered my thought back in this direction and the thought I had as I awoke from a nap this afternoon about the importance of "chunking it" for ease of memory have combined to make me write in my blog again.

Also, reminds me about the 1944 Gilkey sermon wherein he talks about an hourglass and the sand going through one grain at a time. To stop get getting overwhelmed, we must think of an hourglass. Life can happen only one moment at a time. Memories are built one chunk at a time. "Cinch by the inch; hard by the yard"

Focusing on the moment of importance; staying in your firm place!

Emil Coue: "Every day in every way, I am getting better and better!"

Note that we don't say every day we get perfect! Don't let perfect get in the way of better!