2009 08 02

Brothers and Sisters,

The Sunday Morning Church of ATTENTION

Paying Attention is our Best Investment in the Future., is a major tenet of The Church of Attention for a multitude of reasons. 

Paying Attention allows you to repeat strategies that work and not repeat strategies that don’t work. For example: 

How Not to Repeat Mistakes.

• First define a mistake (from our cinema careers lets remember the director saying, “Cut. That’s a miss take.”) A mistake is an ‘Unintended Outcome’ that I Am Responsible for.  I am painting the house; it’s taking a lot of ladder work. The house is 116 years old and there is dry rot that broke from leaning a ladder against it. Not a mistake. But not leveling the ground on which to set the ladder and having the too full paint can fall along with the painter, that is a mistake. 
• Step two is How Did I Do it? I am 100% responsible for what I do. I have a pattern to go Fast.  To hurry to get a project over so I can have fun. I can rationalize, justify and excuse rushing , but not with danger, and a can of paint in tow, so what else could I have done? I need to see my alternatives, different outcomes and the fact that it is faster to level the ground beforehand than clean the paint, buy more paint and heal my bruise from My Mistake. I Realize I can do it different and still be fast. I can remember how I have seen others handle the situation and use their experience and my own experiences as a guide. I identified the cause and how I created the mistake.
• Decide I can do it different. Making a decision is crucial. Its quick, and I like fast, and its safe and saves time and money. Good decision. The alternative to deciding to do it different is to judge me from the self-directed anger I feel upon hitting the ground, spilling the paint, and fall in self abasement as if that was the way I always am. Rather that I have choices, it is not preordained that I make mistakes.
• It is not enough to know what I do not want to do, but what I want to do. This is where there is a difference between an ‘insight’ and change.  If I do not change I can repeat the mistake, hope I never have to use a ladder again, endure more trial and ERROR but my informed decision allows me to gain control and create consistent improvement.
• To ensure I do not repeat the mistake I must now go into the future, using all my sense, see myself using the ladder, leveling the base, hear myself internally repeating my positive decision for speed, safety and economy, and feel the job going smoothly and finishing quickly without self incrimination of ‘ladder stupidity’ and create a COMPELLING FUTURE.  This is my future test to stop repeating mistakes.

Paying Attention is our tool for creating the future we want. It's a great tool to pass onto children and grandchildren.

Namaste