I was in the yard reading the newspaper. Gracie, my one year old puppy, was digging a hole. But she wasn’t just digging a hole. She had a purpose. She was on a mission. There was something buried deep under the dirt where she was digging. Some treasure was under there and she was going to find it come hell or high water.
It was incredible. Her focus on the task of digging was laser-like. She was intent, intense, totally goal-directed and undistracted by anything else going on around her. With that sort of attitude, how could she not end up getting the gold?
Here’s how: Gracie got wind of another dog walking down the street past our house. Instantly, Gracie was on red alert! Her territorial mode kicked in. Her aggression kicked in. She was letting the other dog know she meant business. Stay away from our property.
Needless to say, in the blink of an eye, Gracie’s adventure in digging was history. Instantly, she went into her primal, instinctual survival mode, giving up her mission to make an angry, territorial statement to another dog who couldn’t care less about territory, boundaries, or warning shots across the bow.
Gracie got derailed from her mission for no good reason. That dog was not a threat. Had the dog adopted an aggressive posture that would have been another story, but that’s not what happened here.
Observation #1: Gracie seemed a lot more content when she was on her mission, digging her hole. Now she’s barking, huffing and puffing, on total dog alert attending to her senses, doesn’t seem to be having fun, doesn’t seem to be content.
Observation #2: Several minutes have passed. The other dog got the message. The dog is long gone. But Gracie’s still in alert mode, little huffs and puffs peppered here and there.
Point being: long after the threat has passed, Gracie is still attending to that experience, that reality that is now history, and she has totally forgotten and abandoned her mission to dig that hole and find that deliciously buried bone.
Even when I brought her over to the hole to point out to her that her mission was still there, wonderfully waiting for her renewed participation and vigor, her mind was still in the aggressive, territorial mode. And she never did get back to digging the hole.
The analogy for people who have chosen a path, a mission, a goal of any sort: As we dig for our buried treasure, we stay focused on the goal. We stay attentive to the mission. We don’t allow ourselves to be distracted and derailed by our ego’s dramas.
If there appears to be a threat of some sort, we stop what we’re doing and we look at it. We evaluate it. We assess the data and determine if the threat is real. If so, we take appropriate action.
When the threat has passed, we do not linger. We do not keep our mind, our heart, our attention on the event that has passed. Regardless of the adrenalin still pumping, we shift our attention back to our mission, our task, our purpose, our goal.
We don’t need our radar up once the threat has passed. We don’t need to spend time ruminating over all the what-ifs we can imagine from the experience. We don’t need to talk about it, we don’t need to dwell on it at all. We need to get back to business.
If we are initially distracted by what we think might be a threat which, upon observation, clearly proves not to be, and we do not immediately return to task, but rather allow the distraction to absorb our attention and energy, we can be sure that the ego has stepped in to sabotage our success, and that it has succeeded.
We can’t let that happen. As soon as we are aware that we have been side-tracked, we get back on our path. We keep our eyes on the ball. We stay vigilant because we are certain that the ego will not stop, that it will attempt other ways to distract us, to draw us into meaningless communications and behaviors that may seem relevant and necessary to attend to but aren’t.
We stick to task. We ignore the ego’s petty distractions, resentments and aggressions. We disengage from all pointless ego battles. We want none of it.
The more fervently and single-mindedly we dig for our buried treasure, while paying appropriate attention to what is necessary for our survival, well-being, and happiness, the resistance from the world we will encounter is likely to be less,and the cooperation, support and progress we will experience is likely to be a great deal more.
Staying Focused on Success
I was in the yard reading the newspaper. Gracie, my one year old puppy, was digging a hole. But she wasn’t just digging a hole. She had a purpose. She was on a mission. There was something buried deep under the dirt where she was digging. Some treasure was under there and she was going to find it come hell or high water.
It was incredible. Her focus on the task of digging was laser-like. She was intent, intense, totally goal-directed and undistracted by anything else going on around her. With that sort of attitude, how could she not end up getting the gold?
Here’s how: Gracie got wind of another dog walking down the street past our house. Instantly, Gracie was on red alert! Her territorial mode kicked in. Her aggression kicked in. She was letting the other dog know she meant business. Stay away from our property.
Needless to say, in the blink of an eye, Gracie’s adventure in digging was history. Instantly, she went into her primal, instinctual survival mode, giving up her mission to make an angry, territorial statement to another dog who couldn’t care less about territory, boundaries, or warning shots across the bow.
Gracie got derailed from her mission for no good reason. That dog was not a threat. Had the dog adopted an aggressive posture that would have been another story, but that’s not what happened here.
Observation #1: Gracie seemed a lot more content when she was on her mission, digging her hole. Now she’s barking, huffing and puffing, on total dog alert attending to her senses, doesn’t seem to be having fun, doesn’t seem to be content.
Observation #2: Several minutes have passed. The other dog got the message. The dog is long gone. But Gracie’s still in alert mode, little huffs and puffs peppered here and there.
Point being: long after the threat has passed, Gracie is still attending to that experience, that reality that is now history, and she has totally forgotten and abandoned her mission to dig that hole and find that deliciously buried bone.
Even when I brought her over to the hole to point out to her that her mission was still there, wonderfully waiting for her renewed participation and vigor, her mind was still in the aggressive, territorial mode. And she never did get back to digging the hole.
The analogy for people who have chosen a path, a mission, a goal of any sort: As we dig for our buried treasure, we stay focused on the goal. We stay attentive to the mission. We don’t allow ourselves to be distracted and derailed by our ego’s dramas.
If there appears to be a threat of some sort, we stop what we’re doing and we look at it. We evaluate it. We assess the data and determine if the threat is real. If so, we take appropriate action.
When the threat has passed, we do not linger. We do not keep our mind, our heart, our attention on the event that has passed. Regardless of the adrenalin still pumping, we shift our attention back to our mission, our task, our purpose, our goal.
We don’t need our radar up once the threat has passed. We don’t need to spend time ruminating over all the what-ifs we can imagine from the experience. We don’t need to talk about it, we don’t need to dwell on it at all. We need to get back to business.
If we are initially distracted by what we think might be a threat which, upon observation, clearly proves not to be, and we do not immediately return to task, but rather allow the distraction to absorb our attention and energy, we can be sure that the ego has stepped in to sabotage our success, and that it has succeeded.
We can’t let that happen. As soon as we are aware that we have been side-tracked, we get back on our path. We keep our eyes on the ball. We stay vigilant because we are certain that the ego will not stop, that it will attempt other ways to distract us, to draw us into meaningless communications and behaviors that may seem relevant and necessary to attend to but aren’t.
We stick to task. We ignore the ego’s petty distractions, resentments and aggressions. We disengage from all pointless ego battles. We want none of it.
The more fervently and single-mindedly we dig for our buried treasure, while paying appropriate attention to what is necessary for our survival, well-being, and happiness, the resistance from the world we will encounter is likely to be less,and the cooperation, support and progress we will experience is likely to be a great deal more.
I was in the yard reading the newspaper. Gracie, my one year old puppy, was digging a hole. But she wasn’t just digging a hole. She had a purpose. She was on a mission. There was something buried deep under the dirt where she was digging. Some treasure was under there and she was going to find it come hell or high water.
It was incredible. Her focus on the task of digging was laser-like. She was intent, intense, totally goal-directed and undistracted by anything else going on around her. With that sort of attitude, how could she not end up getting the gold?
Here’s how: Gracie got wind of another dog walking down the street past our house. Instantly, Gracie was on red alert! Her territorial mode kicked in. Her aggression kicked in. She was letting the other dog know she meant business. Stay away from our property.
Needless to say, in the blink of an eye, Gracie’s adventure in digging was history. Instantly, she went into her primal, instinctual survival mode, giving up her mission to make an angry, territorial statement to another dog who couldn’t care less about territory, boundaries, or warning shots across the bow.
Gracie got derailed from her mission for no good reason. That dog was not a threat. Had the dog adopted an aggressive posture that would have been another story, but that’s not what happened here.
Observation #1: Gracie seemed a lot more content when she was on her mission, digging her hole. Now she’s barking, huffing and puffing, on total dog alert attending to her senses, doesn’t seem to be having fun, doesn’t seem to be content.
Observation #2: Several minutes have passed. The other dog got the message. The dog is long gone. But Gracie’s still in alert mode, little huffs and puffs peppered here and there.
Point being: long after the threat has passed, Gracie is still attending to that experience, that reality that is now history, and she has totally forgotten and abandoned her mission to dig that hole and find that deliciously buried bone.
Even when I brought her over to the hole to point out to her that her mission was still there, wonderfully waiting for her renewed participation and vigor, her mind was still in the aggressive, territorial mode. And she never did get back to digging the hole.
The analogy for people who have chosen a path, a mission, a goal of any sort: As we dig for our buried treasure, we stay focused on the goal. We stay attentive to the mission. We don’t allow ourselves to be distracted and derailed by our ego’s dramas.
If there appears to be a threat of some sort, we stop what we’re doing and we look at it. We evaluate it. We assess the data and determine if the threat is real. If so, we take appropriate action.
When the threat has passed, we do not linger. We do not keep our mind, our heart, our attention on the event that has passed. Regardless of the adrenalin still pumping, we shift our attention back to our mission, our task, our purpose, our goal.
We don’t need our radar up once the threat has passed. We don’t need to spend time ruminating over all the what-ifs we can imagine from the experience. We don’t need to talk about it, we don’t need to dwell on it at all. We need to get back to business.
If we are initially distracted by what we think might be a threat which, upon observation, clearly proves not to be, and we do not immediately return to task, but rather allow the distraction to absorb our attention and energy, we can be sure that the ego has stepped in to sabotage our success, and that it has succeeded.
We can’t let that happen. As soon as we are aware that we have been side-tracked, we get back on our path. We keep our eyes on the ball. We stay vigilant because we are certain that the ego will not stop, that it will attempt other ways to distract us, to draw us into meaningless communications and behaviors that may seem relevant and necessary to attend to but aren’t.
We stick to task. We ignore the ego’s petty distractions, resentments and aggressions. We disengage from all pointless ego battles. We want none of it.
The more fervently and single-mindedly we dig for our buried treasure, while paying appropriate attention to what is necessary for our survival, well-being, and happiness, the resistance from the world we will encounter is likely to be less,and the cooperation, support and progress we will experience is likely to be a great deal more.