I sometimes think life is always trying to teach us lessons.  I admit that sometimes I am oblivious to the lessons.  But I also think that sometimes I can see them.  I also think that sometimes the lessons are a practice.  It is not as if I go through life, have something happen, see the thing I am supposed to learn and then – BAM!  I got it.  Lesson exposed, lesson learned, I’m good.  Nope.  Sometimes it is a practice.  Just like yoga and Nia or learning an instrument.  Continuous or multiple exposures helps you learn the art of it.  Last month I wrote about “The Art Of Letting Go“, where I went with a friend to an evening event called Paint Nite.  The idea is to paint something in two hours being led step-by-step by an artist.  My idea was to just let go.  To know that my painting was not going to look exactly like the original, but it would look like something.  It would bear a resemblance to the one I was taught to paint.  I liked it because it was blue.  Well, I have been doing things that remind me to concentrate and be in the moment.  Yes, I write about this often because it is something I need to be reminded of constantly.  I need to live in the moment.  I need to concentrate on what I am doing.  I need to enjoy what I am doing.  I need to fully sense and experience what I am doing.

I think my first post about this was me talking about brushing my teeth.  I stated that I brushed my teeth while doing a lot of different things — all the time.  I am better now.  I used to think that if I brush my teeth while doing something else I could save time, but what ended up happening was that I was concentrating on the other task so much so that I didn’t know if I brushed the upper left side so I would do it again.  Then wonder if I brushed the bottom right . . . the point is, I think I ended up brushing a lot longer because I was not concentrating on just brushing my teeth, than if I would have JUST brushed my teeth.  I am better at that now.  I start to step away from the sink and I remember that I will be done faster if I just get it done than if I go . . . do whatever.

I did another Paint Nite and I really had to concentrate on what I was doing in order to keep up with the artist.  It is my opinion that she was going really fast.  I couldn’t keep up, so listening and talking and participating in what was going on around me put me WAY behind the instruction.  I just had to buckle down and concentrate on what I was doing so that I could listen to what she was saying so that I could do the next step she explained.  I was concentrating so hard on what she was saying that I took a swig of paint water.  YUP!  I was listening to her, I reached behind my canvas, grabbed the cup and brought it to my lips and took a sip.  I realized it tasted odd and spit it out – mostly in my cup, partially on my friend.  (Thank God, she is so understanding and forgiving.)  That was me not paying attention to the cup I was grabbing.

But I like this creation better than my last.  I learned so much from my first time, that I was able to do this one better, but I actually had the opposite problem.  I wasn’t using enough paint.  But I think — still not, sure it was the water I need more of.  Regardless, I learned some more and I really like this painting.  No, it is lacking the soft lines of the original, but I like it.

One of the other things I am doing that requires one to clear one’s thoughts is archery.  I wanted to see what shooting a bow was like.  I wanted to use a “regular” bow, but that is not the popular bow to shoot.  We were shooting one of those fancy things with what remind me of pulleys on each end.  We weren’t even using what they call a “recurve”.  Whatever bow you use the target is the target so learning how to get the arrow where you want it to go was the interesting part.  Not that my arrow always went where I wanted to go, but I was taught the premise.  But the instructor (Mike at Predator’s Archery) really emphasized concentration.  He shared his (award winning) techniques regarding targeting and shooting the arrow, but he emphasized again and again how you have to concentrate.  And you might be surprised on what you concentrate on, but that is not the point of this post, the point is you have to not think about distracting things.  Live in the now and focus on the task at hand.

Focusing and concentrating really goes a long way in getting things done.  We are always multitasking because that is just how life is.  In most situations you cannot not think about more than one thing, but sometimes just DOING one thing really helps you get it done quick and with focus so that you can move on to the next thing.  Things like to have your undivided attention.  I will continue to practice focus, concentration, and living in the now even though the world around me as a whole thinks I need to do fifty things at once in order to be productive.

What do you thing?  Do you think that less can be more?  Do you think sometimes if you just do ONE thing (instead of multitasking) you can get it done faster and better?