How to see the world

Quotaless reads less than 300 words to help master your mind, business, and time.

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Tracy and I stared at the empty stage waiting for the band.

“Do you have a lighter?” Someone asked.

“No. Sorry,” I said.

A woman wearing a prairie dress picks up the microphone and starts singing opera music.

Most of the crowd kept chatting and drinking.

But I stared in disbelief, in wonder.

I remember feeling like a kid thinking, “Wow, that’s amazing! How’s she sing like that?”

It’s good to see the world like a kid.

I got these HD Prizm sunglasses for golf years back. They have pink lenses that make the fairways and greens pop. It’s easier to see the ball, the pin, the course undulations…

But I wear them every day. Because they make everything pop.

Tracy use to make fun of me. But now I think she understands they help me see the world, bright and vivid.

Slowing down helps too.

Walking Bernie last week, I spent a few minutes inspecting a cactus garden near the house.

Six-foot flower stems draped over and through San Pedro and Prickly pear cacti.

It looked beautifully alien. A lot of things look like that when you notice them.

In her book, Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott writes, “There is ecstasy in paying attention.”

That sounds right. And it means ecstasy is available to everyone.

You listen closer, focus your gaze, and take your time walking the neighborhood.

Then the world’s beauty reveals itself.

But you don’t do it just to be amazed by sunsets or brought to tears during weddings.

You do it so you see others as humans, as equals, as doing their best dealing with the same stuff you are.

Do it enough and you see yourself that way, as part of the ecstasy.

Then you don’t judge.

You appreciate.

300+

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Remember,

When we embrace practice, develop awareness, and align our efforts, we can rise above the deal.

We can live #quotaless.