Focus On Importance

Prior to March 2020, we were hurtling towards self destruction in every possible way! COVID-19 has wrought havoc with mankind! But, it’s also stopped us in our tracks and forced a rethink of everything. That’s something we’ve hardly ever done in our frenzied pursuit of material success. The lockdown and subsequent slowdown has given us some space and breathing time to ponder on the more fundamental aspects of our existence.

In our earlier lives we’ve always prioritised urgency over importance! Our schedules were packed and time was short for just about everything and everyone. Important aspects of our lives (like health & relationships) are like very reticent people who never call for attention. So we neglect them and focus our attention on attention seeking people and tasks. We flit from urgent issues to urgent issues. Its when the truly important people are  gone that we realise their value… too late! Years of cumulative neglect cause important aspects of life to boil over sooner or later. Because we ignored them for so long they now become life threatening emergencies…. like a health or relationship breakdown.

Our earlier life is over! Everything is different now. But “different “ is not necessarily bad! Its just that we’re in a new world now. So the map of the old territory is not going to help us navigate in the new panorama of life. The time to recalibrate, reconsider and indeed, reinvent ourselves and our lives is NOW!

We can start by asking some searching questions to ourselves.

• What is truly important to me ? Important in the sense that it overrides everything else.
• Why is it important ? What happens if I neglect it ? How can I correct the imbalance of attention to this ?
• Who is truly important to me ? Have I neglected that person (s) ? How can I rectify it ?

If we can spend some time and energy on answering these two fundamental questions, what & who is important, we can discover the way forward. They can illuminate a clear path that cuts through the fog of uncertainty that now enshrouds the world around us. They will show us the unimportant and by contrast, illuminate the important. We can then become the Michale Angelo of our own lives. Just as Michael Angelo chipped away the extraneous elements of marble from a large block of marble to reveal the sublime image of the Pieta, so too can we remove the encrustation of distractions and inconsequential aspects of our lives. That’s when the radiant potential in us becomes visible in all its glory. We can then devote ourselves to manifesting that potential and becoming our Ideal Selves!