Journal entry for today.
http://www.tompeters.com/entries.php?note=006635.php

Tom Peters on “The Single Most Important Thing” turns out to be two. Meditation and 4 item to-do list EVERY MORNING! Got the first part down, now on to the second.

Note to Will, start a 4 item todo list and put it in front of you each day. Things to include are important work commitments, blogging, relationship stuff, woodworking goals, technology, life work. Things to exclude, time wasters, shopping lists, frivolous Internet distractions, appointments, etc. Seems like two lists are called for. The 4 item “Single Most Important Thing” list and a combo appointment/shopping/errand list. Mixing these two list has been my method and now I see that may be my problem with consistency. If the list doesn’t have important things on it or too many items from the appointment/shopping/errand category, the list losses its power.

Even just the process of setting the todo list and setting the priorities will be skillful. As Tom Peters says, what is left off of the list list is just as important as what is included. That helps in understanding the importance of culling dead, negative and unhelpful activities from the list. Onward!

Snake River Canyon

Water Music        
by Robert Creeley

The words are a beautiful music.
The words bounce like in water.

Water music,
loud in the clearing

off the boats,
birds, leaves.

They look for a place
to sit and eat–

no meaning,
no point.

To be moved by simple thing is the greatest blessing. To have good health is the greatest blessing. To share life’s journey with the ones you love, is the greatest blessing.

Serendipitously, flow or the notion of being lost in ones passion has brought two wonderful tidbits into view. The first is a short 18min video of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Feb 2004 talk at TED. View it if you have any interest in creativity and how to develop it. Csikszentmihalyi is an author and researcher that pioneered the work that lead to our current understand of creativity, fulfillment and coined the term “flow” to discribe the experience of immersion one has when lost in ones passion. Csikszentmihalyi states the it takes about ten years of study, practice or immersion in a field before flow is possible. I see it a little different. Little practice equals little flow, great practice equals great flow. Maybe ten years is magic maybe not. We’ll see. I’m developing a new skill of carving wooden spoons. Some how I got it in my head that I’ll have to make 400 before I’ll get any good. Yet already I’ve created some wonderful spoons and I’m only on 23. (21, 22 & 23 are being worked on at the same time.)

The second tidbit is via “The Writers Bag”, a blog on writing from which I continue to learn from a lot. Cool stuff indeed.

The Hindu sage named Patanjali wrote this in his Yoga Sutras ::

“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds. Your mind transcends limitations. Your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than what you ever dreamed yourself to be.”

Dear Dan,

Dan, you are an inspiration. Thanks for putting your Moonlight Chronicles online! Yahooo! I applaud your effort to save the trees. I sure hope this method works for you. It sure is nice getting a daily dose of the adventures of the Moonlight Chronicles.

A big fan.
Will

Confluence of the Grande Ronde and the Snake Rivers
Oregon, Washington and Idaho

I’ve become more and more aware that the quality of life is a reflection of the focus of attention. Also, attention and intention seem to be deeply related. When an intention is expressed, attention is naturally directed towards it. Clarifying intentions focuses attention. Focused attention is quality of life. From a Zen perspective, attention doesn’t lead to a good life — attention is life!
 
Dave Pollard is a creative being who, by sharing his intentions, has motivated me to look closer at my intentions. Dave has put aside the notion of “the resolution” and taken up expressing his intentions, ten every 6 months. He has developed a three step process for clarifying and stating these intentions.  
 

So preparing the Intention List becomes a three step exercise:
 
   1. What is your intention, in order to become who you really are, and be and do what you were intended to?
   2. What’s holding you back? What obstacle is blocking you from realizing that intention?
   3. What One Thing will you do remove or work around that obstacle?
 
So, for example:
 
   1. I intend to learn to be present, live in the moment, be aware, attentive, appreciative.
   2. I am blocked from doing this by my inability to quiet my mind and avoid distractions.
   3. The One Thing I will do to remove that obstacle is to study and practice meditation, regularly and diligently.

 
Dave’s experience with this has pointed him to the notion of the “One Thing”. Often our intentions are a bit nebulous in just how we are going to actualize them. Identifying just one thing that is an obstacle to success then putting attention on the obstacle’s antidote creates movement. Don’t get hung up on “The One Thing”. It can be a trap where we feel we have to come up with the best or right one thing.  There can be lots of blocks and each has an antidote. The idea is to pick one block and focus on the antidote. If the first one doesn’t work pick something another.  
 
So enough jabbering about the process and here are my intentions.  
 

• Evolve to become more attentive to the present moment, more attuned with those around me, more expressive of gratitude, more aware of where my attention is focused, and more conversational.
• Move more.
• Live simpler by owning less, consuming less, desiring less, doing less, and having more fun.
• Develop my creativity by playing in the woodshop.
• Reduce ’screen time’ — increase ‘nature time’. With what screen time remains, focus on sharing by + blogging, + posting photography, + help on #ubuntu, + Zen shanga website support, and + raven communication.
• Mentor myself at work to apply professional development techniques including improved delegation, improved training, improved documentation and practice “one kind thing”.

 
Well, there you have it. My attempt to bare myself a little more nakedly. I’ve ordered these intentions by relative importance to me and I have been vague about how I’ll actualize them.  
 
Now I can start the process of looking at each one and see if I can identify ‘one thing’ that blocks these intentions from existence and coming up with an antidote.
 
I’m not worried that I only have six intentions. I feel I’ve thought pretty big here. What a ride this would be if the blocks for my six little intentions where dissolved.  I feel free to modify, add or drop any intention at any time. I’m not stuck on reviewing these in 6 months or a year, in fact, a much more frequent, even weekly, review and reset will keep my intention in the focus of my attention.