Exploring our Experiences

Arthur Ashe said, “Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.”

When struggling with a particular project and find yourself becoming increasingly frustrated, what do you do? What are your “correction” steps if any, what questions do you find yourself asking? Are they perhaps, “Why is it I am having such a difficult time with this?”, or, “What am I doing wrong?”  I would like you consider asking yourself a question that that allows a more helpful and positive outcome. A question that allows you delve into the process that is taking place.

Allow me to give you an example from my own experience. When it comes to painting, I struggled for years through every moment, rarely achieving the desired outcome and resulting in many wasted canvases and paints. I would constantly ask myself, “Why do I have such a difficult time with this?”

Then, one day, while thinking about this, I reframed my question and asked what is different about the way I work when I paint versus other medium. This changed everything. By entering into my process, fully paying attention, I was able to step outside of myself and watch how I do what I do. I felt as though I were learning something for the first time and was amazed at what I already knew. The struggle was gone. I now try to apply this to everything I do, so that the doing, the experience is my focus. In this way I am living in truth.

What question(s) can you ask yourself that will enable you to pay attention fully to your process, observing the experience inwardly and outwardly at the same time? Questions that have you living the process, actually experiencing the experience.

When you’ve found the right question for yourself, explore how you can turn your answer into a different model for yourself that you can apply to all you do. Imagine how that would be for you, to fully pay attention. Are there new possibilities before you that you hadn’t noticed? Do you feel yourself becoming excited by these possibilities? How might this change how you relate to others? How might it change how you relate to yourself?

When we begin to pay attention to our doing, fully experience our process, we may find ourselves exploring different ways of approaching what we do, through thought and action. The possibilities suddenly seem endless. And that, is very exciting.

For information about Visualities please visit me at visualities.us.

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