Socrates, an old, dead philosopher left us with these living words: “An unexamined life is not worth living.” The natural question is: What are we to examine?

To examine our life, we have to ask this one question: Where is my attention?

An unexamined life rarely has us know where our attention is; an examined one does.

Where is your attention? Chances are it’s in one of three places: Past, Present or Future.

All the attention that’s placed on the past and future keeps our life in the cold case file where it’s almost never examined.

Proper examination of our life is in the present. It’s here that we get real, actionable data. In the present, we’re not seeing our life through the smoked glass of memory or forecasting it through rose colored glasses. In the present, we get to observe what’s really going on without any spin.

Examination in the present is observation without judgement. We see a lot more when we observe; we miss a lot when we judge. Judgement takes you out of the present and the examination comes to a halt.

Examination to be effective has to be done in real time which means right now. That takes present moment attention. The more often we go into our head and judge, the more often we leave the present, which means the less often we are living.

Notice where your attention is; that’s examining your life. Then to improve your life, make every effort to keep your attention in the present.

There is nothing evil about reminiscing or about projecting your future. They are both flights of fancy that can produce thrills, but doing it all the time is like living your life in an amusement park.

Present moment attention will provide more amusement than any memory or any view of the future, and it will allow you to examine what is really going on rather than what you think is going on.

It’s in our best interest to work with what’s actually happening rather than what we wish was happening. The way to do that is to direct our attention and observe what is happing now.

A life worth living is an observant life - one where you examine the present moment with your attention.

 

All the best,

John