How do you know it’s clear? How do you know it’s common sense?
I’ve spent most of my life in pursuit of the clear, simple concept of common sense.
When you hear it, it rings true.
When you see it, you recognize it.
But, how do you initiate it for yourself, knowing that it’s the simplest action to take, the right idea to follow, the most common sense path?
Those aren’t the simplest questions to answer, because for each of us, the answer looks different.
However, there is a common thread that runs through every clear, simple, honest action, and that’s awareness.
Awareness
Let me give you an immediate example, using myself as the star of this little drama.
This morning I sat down to my computer to write, and looked for my wrist guards. I looked on the desk in front of me and saw one, the medical ace bandage-y thing, kind of tan in color. I didn’t see the other one. Hmmm, I really thought I had left both of them on my desk, as I switch off between them. Hmmm, well, maybe I left it out by the couch where I was working on my crochet. Hmmmm.
Oops, there goes the computer screen, so I turn to the keyboard to log in. I turn back to the desk and there it is, right in front of me, within hand’s reach and clearly in view. My bright red plaid, larger than life sheepskin wrist wrap.
Why didn’t I see it the first time? Well, let me ask two questions.
Question number 1 – How many things am I doing at once?
In recent years there has been a huge surge in popularity for multi-tasking. I’m no holdout; I used to brag about how many things I could do at once. However, I realized something not too long ago about multi-tasking; the more things I try to do at once, the less well I do all of them. Go ahead, don’t take my word for it, give it a try. With the most mundane of tasks.
Question number 2 – What am I looking for?
I thought I knew what my wrist guard looked like, and I thought I knew where I had left it. I had a pretty strong picture in my mind of both those images. Apparently not, since I couldn’t see it right where it was. When I got distracted from what “I knew,” and turned to log on to the computer, I wiped out the faulty picture and when I looked back at the desktop, I looked with no preconceived illusions, and immediately saw the wrist guard. It kind of happens that way. I heard it called, “Detach from the outcome,” and that concept works really well for me. Again, don’t take my word for it, give it a try.
Same morning, next drama. My desktop crashed a while ago, and I haven’t found a model I really like, so I haven’t replaced it. I really love my laptop, but the numeric keypad is kind of a pain (I’m an accountant) and the keyboard sometimes aggravates me because it’s smaller than a standard keyboard. Among other things.
Well, I’ve been tripping over the absolutely stellar wireless mouse that I had gotten just before my pc crashed. I thought to move it, but then rationalized that I would be getting a desktop soon, so just kept tripping over it. It has most recently been a rest for some great quotes I wrote down to keep in front of me.
Are you ahead of me yet? I’m sure you are.
Took two minutes to connect up my wireless keyboard and mouse to the laptop, and now I’m a LOT more comfortable. And yes, I’m wearing my wrist guard! Which may prove unnecessary because the setup is so much more comfortable.
Trouble was, I kept thinking of the mouse and keyboard in relation to the desktop, and not as they are, independent and useful tools with any computer.
I also didn’t see that the solution to my annoyance with my computer setup was sitting on my desk all the while. So I was using the mouse for an unintended purpose (holding up paper) because I just wasn’t paying attention!
I hope you’ve found these examples helpful, or at least identified in some way with them.
Because the key to Clear, Simple, Common Sense is really Awareness of what you are doing, thinking, listening to, looking at. If you pay attention to where you are right now, you’ll know whether or not you are choosing Clear, Simple, Common Sense, and you can act accordingly!
Here’s to Awareness!