Acing Attention

Today I'm fuelled by coffee rather than tea for a change. Unlike weekdays, I usually eat a light lunch on weekends and today it's a nice Subway sandwich, a BMT Italian.  Having wolfed that down together with some mushroom soup, I now settle down to the more serious business of expounding my thoughts for the week.

I feel particularly elated whenever my week has been productive. But how do we measure productivity? We could be very efficient in doing unnecessary tasks throughout the day. Useful output over time is what I aim for. But now we have to define what we mean by 'useful'?

Is going on a beach holiday beneficial? Or Is finishing that 50 page proposal which you'e promised your boss, useful? The former could be good for you in terms of mental and physical health. You need to take time off to recharge your body and mind. The latter could help advance your career. Producing something that you could somehow tie to a desired goal is considered 'useful work'. 

In my case, I hardly ever take a holiday. My way of recharging is simply to spend time like this: relaxing with a drink, a good book, or turning finger movements this into words (voila!). When it comes to work, I don't have any long-term goals: the mere act of accomplishing a task to the best of my ability is sufficient reason for me to feel fulfilled. I am the judge of the quality of my work and I set the bar pretty high. If I fall short, I would analyse why I had not been at my best and learn from it.

The good thing that comes with age and maturity is that one gains perspective on things. Nothing is too big or too small. Any wild emotional swing can be tempered with the steadying hand of wisdom. You care not about what other people think, because everyone is in the same boat. We all have a finite lifetime and are merely reacting to the promptings of our genes for self-preservation.

If we choose to pay attention, every experience in life, no matter how trivial, carries some lesson. Every piece of training data, readjusts some weights in the deep learning network of the brain. The key is to pay attention, and that's what meditation is all about.

Attention means getting quality input data. Usually we are distracted by all sorts of emotional noise in our heads. We don't have to crank our heads too much to 'understand' something; start simply with focussed attention. Tune the cognitive radio for best reception and once you receive the input with clarity, don't touch that dial.  Tune the receiver, focus the lens. The rest of the things will fall into place.

Clarity of thought or insight never comes immediately. We just focus on the quality of the data that's being fed to the mind. As long as we pay attention, we will subconsciously milk them for all they are worth. Apply attention to everything you do. Even the most mundane moments have something to teach us.  Attention is all there is. Just ace it.