First Notice
You know there are a lot of great tools and techniques out there for managing all kinds of things. Tools to manage finances, tools to manage relationships, tools for learning, building, growing, etc… This isn’t a description of a new (or another) one of those things. Rather, it’s a observation of what comes before any of those tools or techniques has any chance of becoming useful. What comes first is NOTICING.
Knowledge and mastery go unused without awareness. Tools and techniques are un-deployable without noticing a relevant situation in which to deploy them. Is this sounding overly obvious? So do words of advice like “spend less money than you make” or “don’t waste time arguing with your boyfriend or girlfriend”. And yet our finances and our relationships repeatedly challenge us despite “these three easy steps to mastering any problem” and other equally simple sounding solutions (can you hear the infomercial playing in your head?). Without “buying the book”, or the instructional video or whatever, most of us already know a strategy or two to deal with life’s challenges. So what gives?
There may be a few root causes, but a major one is a failure of awareness. A failure to notice. Increasing your capability for awareness (your ability to notice) increases your likelihood of success in any circumstances because only from a place of noticing can you use your skills to take action. Said another way, knowledge and mastery can only be used from a state of awareness.
Still sounding obvious? The last time you were in an argument, did you notice when the conversation turned into that argument. Did you notice when it was about to? Things are not always obvious in the moment, are they? So what are we supposed to do?
Practice noticing. Practice awareness. Here’s how to do this strategically: Periodically ask yourself “what do I notice?” (I’ve even set up an alarm on my phone to do this, or scheduled an email reminder). The first thing you may notice is that you’ve lost focus. This is good! Awareness and focus are most often contradictory. By de-focusing, you have now become ‘available’ to notice things. From here you can ‘look’ into different areas by making yourself available to take notice of your personal state (in the moment or in general), your professional state, or the state of a relationship or relationships in general. You may notice something, you may not. What you notice may be good, or, it may not. It’s not important…yet. What is important is to notice. And from that place of noticing, everything is possible. All courses are available. You may know exactly what course of action to take, or, you may need help to choose a course of action. The point is, you’re at a beginning.
This is your first notice: Notice First.