Tag Archives: Focus

If you don’t look where you’re going. . .

You will never know where you’ve been.

 

So much has happened in the last little while, and I know that sounds cliché but, unless we take a moment and reflect once in a while, we never really understand the “movement”. It seems like forever since I have sat down and transferred thought to paper, and to most it is a task that seldom makes back burner status, but to a writer, it is a “glitch”, a feeling that something is missing, almost an emptiness caused by a disconnection to the world, or in my case, I feel like I have not chatted with the Universe to let it know I am well, and to thank it for guiding my thoughts and sharing with me the energy of life.

 

Where do I start? Even that in itself is a question I have been asked lately, “where is your mindset when you sit down to write” and “how do you know what to say”. I will address those two things first; My mindset when I sit down to write is open, open to all that is positive and peaceful in the Universe, I feel balance, and I try not to focus on any one thing, rather, I wait to feel what comes to my mind first, then I roll my thoughts into words, the finished product is usually something inspirational and motivating, and with a little tweaking is perfect to share with the world. Second; I never “know” what to say, in fact, what happens is I “feel” what needs to be said. I guess an easy way to explain that is; if I see a picture of a flower, I feel the beauty of the flower, I feel the sunshine, the breeze, the dew left behind by the dawn, I feel the energy the flower shares with all who take the time to smell it… I “feel” what the flower feels and put it into words.

 

Now, on to my update, I have met SO many wonderful people recently, people that share the energy in the company I am with, people that are grateful to live clean healthy lifestyles, to have actually found youth and vitality just by trying something new and wonderful. But, its not all about the company, it’s about these people, sure they are all running their business, but they took the time to get to know me, who I am, what I do, they read my books, they follow my FB page, some have even shared smiles that found my heart and brought new light to my life.

 

These “things” that happen in our life, happen because we believe, because we ask the Universe for positive change, well, let me tell you, my world is FILLED with positive change, my business is growing, my books (Series II of BawB’s Raven Feathers) have been proofed and will be off to design shortly, but best of all, I have become re-acquainted with a man I have not seen in a while, I was introduced by a wonderful friend to Robert Chomany, the man responsible for the books, for the smiles, for the inspiration, the man my Mom, Bless her heart, raised me to be.

 

It seems somehow I grew comfortable hiding behind a book title, a name, an image, I was so comfortable being invisible that I forgot about how incredibly rewarding it is to be seen. I am Robert Chomany, I am proud, and I am Inspired to share with the Universe this person I am happy to BE.

 

When you feel the wind, then spread your wings, its time for you to soar,

There is a time for you to see yourself, how beautiful you are and even more..

WI:)ND🌻

Do you ever think about. . .

 

. . . what to think about?

 

So there I was, writing in my office the other day. I drifted off for a moment to a conversation I had recently with two wonderful friends. We talked about writing and how hard it can be, especially if you try to do it every day. We unanimously agreed that to write every day, you must be able to focus on something—a thought, an image; you really have to think about what to write. But have you ever really thought about thinking?

 

We do it every day, without even thinking about it. We constantly calculate, deviate, procrastinate, and elevate with our minds. Now, sit down and write about it. Yeah, that’s the dilemma. Once you start thinking about writing about things you think about, you will likely find that your mind will empty itself of every thought you have ever experienced. Seriously, sit down, grab a pen or a keyboard, and instantly you will see the beauty that is a blank piece of paper, and how Zen-like it is. Why mess it up with silly black letters, the paper should remain clean and uncluttered.

 

The further you get from the task of writing, thoughts will begin to return to your head. Did I feed the cat? I wonder if that yogurt I just ate has expired. I should water the plants. Writing is now the very last thing you can think about doing, because there is just so much else to do. Well, all is not lost. The process of thought, and not just for writers, is as easily controlled as breathing, or so I have discovered. But wait, you say, you don’t think about breathing, you just do it. That’s right, and you don’t think about thinking either. It is just something you do. Naturally.

 

You wake every morning, go through your routine, and head off to work to do what you do without thinking. Then before you know it you are back home resting your overworked mind that you have used all day to make things happen. Welcome to life. Now that I have clarified a little about what I think about thinking and writing, you may have a little more insight into the powers of the mind, think about how happy you could be if you just gave it some thought. You can achieve anything you put your mind to.

 

If you choose to become a writer and you practice in the art of not thinking, you can then sit comfortably and not think about something to write about. Or better yet, grab a book and read—immerse yourself in a story that takes your thoughts away to a place you have never thought about.

 

Believe in you and all you do and think of you with pride

All you’ve done is worthy I think of a smile from deep inside.

 

🙂

 

BawB

 

Stress by any other name. . .

 

. . . is still avoidable.

I am a calm person by nature. There isn’t much that gets me riled up, at least in my day-to-day life. Don’t get me wrong, I could go off on a tangent with the best of them, but I choose to see the simplicity in things. While in my shop this week working on the bikes, getting them ready for spring and making some modifications, I found myself getting quite frustrated rewiring the controls on the Sportster. It should have been easy enough, I’ve rewired bikes before, but this machine did everything in its power to raise my stress levels.

I know what you’re thinking: machines don’t have power. But they do. We give them names, we look after them, we wash and feed them, we groom them, and we adorn them to make them look more appealing. Yes, machines have power over us, and as some of you will attest to, they have personalities. I swear I could hear laughter coming from this motorcycle as I manipulated a paperclip into a tiny little hole to release a lock that held a connector pin in place. But I maintained my composure, talked to the connector  in a calm, rational tone :), I worked through the building stress levels by breathing and keeping it simple,  the tiny lock reluctantly released its hold. All calm was restored in the shop.

This same mind over matter syndrome took place again in my office for three days in a row. Normally, every morning I wake up, let my little dog out, put the coffee on, and then sit down to do some writing—my morning brain workout so to speak. Well, for those three days, likely due to the time I was spending with the bikes, I had nothing. Not a word came to mind. I sat for about an hour each morning and drifted in and out of peaceful calm looking for, well, words.  There were none, and yes, I got frustrated, stressed out in fact, because I am a writer. Writers write, and I had nothing.

I took a moment to breathe, to find my calm and to realize that being stressed about not writing was making not being able to write even worse. After only a few moments of realizing I was not moving forward, I stepped back, took a breath and relaxed, I simply thought about not thinking for a moment, and the words began to flow. All calm was restored in the office .

It is so easy to let go of calm. We give in to our instinctive fears, we worry, we compete, and we pressure ourselves to meet unreachable goals and deadlines. We forget to breathe. Let me remind you today to find a place to store your calm— somewhere in your mind that is easily accessible, somewhere you can go to breathe. Go there often, and enjoy being you. Always.

Smile . . . Breathe . . . Believe.

🙂

BawB

Do you lose focus when you see. . .

 

. . .  projects pile up in stacks of 3?

 

I recently accepted an opportunity to grow. I learned of a course that would expand my knowledge base, and I jumped at the chance—sixty hours, three weekends in a row. Not until I was deeply immersed in the material did I realize I might have bitten off too big of a chunk of life. I will never say that as we get older our capacity to learn new things diminishes a tad, but I will say it gets a little tougher to do several things at once, at least for me.

 

I am a writer now, and as my friend Carrie says, writers write—that’s what we do. But this writer also had to study, and the new material I was faced with, filled the learning portion of my brain. I was then asked to write some pages for volume two of my book, and this assignment filled the creative side of my brain. Finally, I sought a blog page and my morning status updates out of the inspirational portion of what was left of my brain. I know there are a lot of you out there, who could do this with your eyes closed while whistling Dixie, but we are all different, for me it was a challenge.

 

The fun part for me was shifting my focus past assignments one, two, and three and looking forward to what the next week would bring. I enjoyed the challenges I had chosen to undertake once I decided that I would only be disappointed in myself if I did not try. I appreciate both success and failure in my life; either outcome means I have tried, and any result is a valuable lesson in my journey of life. It’s funny how as we get older, we tend look at challenges differently. Well, at least I do anyway.

 

To me, life is an adventure full of challenges and projects that I stitch together, I get enjoyment out of each of them and satisfaction from completing them. The thread I use to attach one project to another is made from a spool of learning, knowledge, and patience. Then, once a blanket of projects are completed I remember the tools I used, the effort it took, and the skills each project required, then it’s on to the next one.

 

The rest of the world grows at its own pace, and for this reason, we as individuals must learn to adapt and to grow with our surroundings. We must learn to find happiness, or to create it. We must learn to smile in the face of adversity, because we can. We must focus past the challenge and seek also the rewards of the attempt.

 

With each and every step you take, you move to somewhere new,

to a place you’ve never been before that has a different view.

 

🙂

 

BawB