One Thing At A Time

One Thing At A Time

Moonlight Along The Coastal Path.

I had a very interesting conversation yesterday. The person I was talking to in the midst of the conversation made comment that sh was at the time multitasking. I smile. Multitasking we are told is something that females can do and males cannot. Now I do not wish to become embroiled in a sexist conversation that will lead me nowhere. I simple admit that I am hopeless at multitasking and happy that this is in fact the case.

Multitasking, I can't  do two things at once. I can't even do one thing at once.

I have said it before and I say it again, my father who was a wise man, always told me to do whatever I was doing to the best of my ability and you cannot ask yourself for more.  My mother often sat with her knitting while reading a book and in the background the radio would be playing. To this day I do not know which of the three she was in fact doing. Maybe them all. But was she doing them to the best of her ability?

Most of us never really focus because we don't know the power of focus. We constantly feel a kind of irritating psychic chaos because we keep trying to think of too many things at once. There's always too much up there on the screen of the mind.

 It was Lao Tzu who said that we must do what we are doing and do it well. If you are walking remember you are not running, if you are running remember you are not walking. 

There is a very interesting experiment. A teacher  puts a plank of wood on the floor, not a great wide plank just a normal plank of wood, two by four. The teacher then asks all the students to walk across the plank one at a time. Every student would be able to walk across this plank with very little difficulty. It is in fact a simple task they have been asked to do.

But now think of this same plank, see it in your mind, it is now stretched across a high ravine. How many of the students would be able to walk across the plank now? The number would be a lot less than you might imagine. For some the very thought of it is more than enough.

Why do you think this is the case? It is because the point of focus has been changed. Now most people are focused not on getting over the plank they have switched the focus onto falling from the plank.

As one who has crossed many mountain ridges let me tell you I find it hard to walk them but I can manage fine when running. Walking gives me too much time to change the point of focus.

Many people feel they must multi-task because everybody else is multitasking, but this is partly because they are all interrupting each other so much.

This blog is never meant to be controversial it is merely meant to be a quiet start to a day or a moment of thought. But the greatest lesson I have ever learned in life is that to do one thing and do it well is the best way to happiness. 

I used to be hopeless and washing dishes. I really was, somebody always had to do them behind me. That was because my mind was always somewhere else. Now I get pleasure in a dish well washed , and I make sure that it is. 

todays painting is one of my favourite topics of painting. There is something peaceful and calm about a moonlight sky. This one was painted for my pleasure in pastel. Not the most important fact about it was that it had sold because the painting had already done what its purpose for me was. it had brought me pleasure and satisfaction.