What's the slipperiest commodity you have?

It's perspective--and you never know it's gone until it is.

I got reminded of that the hard way a while back, when what started as a simple cold morphed into a rather painful sinus infection affecting my ears, my nose, my jaws, and… my brain. At the time, with several demanding, creative projects on tight timelines in front of me, it seemed that all my inspiration suddenly went south. Fatigue and the doldrums took over, and the devil himself – self-doubt – reared its ugly head.

Inspiration is like health--when you have it, you don’t ever think you won’t. And when you don’t have it, it can seem like there is no path to get there from where you are.

And there isn’t. You can’t get there from here. Inspiration comes when you’re open to it, and when you make ready the way for it. And though it’s as simple as tuning to another station on the radio, it’s as difficult as sacrificing the substance of our conditioned reality--our point of view.

I’ve discovered over the years that I’ve been in the focus business. I was paid to create contexts personally and organizationally for people to shift their perspectives, and by doing so improve their situations. We can all see how to do almost anything – except, somehow, right when we decide we need to or want to. What we’re really after is learning to see how we see. Like reaching over to re-tune the receiver to a clearer station. That is the whole game of shifting focus.

But when you’re down in it, what do you do?

I spent that week with my throbbing sinuses doing what I could do--cleaning up the in-basket, paying bills, fixing little things, feeding the birds, and basically doing what can usually feel like wasting time. But they were things that I would need or want to do at some time anyway, so it was as productive as I could be. Reflective practices are my ultimate first aid, because they strengthen my ability to detach my focus from the material stuff anyway, and keep my priorities straighter. A throbbing head can make those practices a real challenge, though.

So when my head came back to some semblance of normal (what’s that?!) and I was able to get inspired again about the bigger stuff, I realized with renewed humility that perspective is an ephemeral asset, and not to be taken for granted.

Good luck, when you need it.

David

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Choice of attention, to pay attention to this and ignore that, is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer.- W.H. Auden

There are days when it takes all you’ve got just to keep up with the losers.- Robert Orben