Heighten Your Awareness to Multiply Your Growth

Have you ever driven somewhere, and upon arrival, wondered how you got there?

A version of that happened to me yesterday.

One of the repeated statements I’ve been making in my Five Minute Journal is that I’d like to be more in tune and more appreciative of the little things — the taste of a fresh blueberry, the sound of a bird chirping, the magnificence of a burnt orange sunset.

After I wrote that in my Friday morning entry, I was motivated to put myself to the test.

I decided that I’d be as engaged as possible on my commute into work. And then for my “100 Naked Words” article, I’d write about all I had noticed.

It was going to be a success story.

Instead, you’re getting this.

Though I got in my car with the best intentions, those intentions were churned up with the turn of the ignition.

I started listening to my favorite podcast, pulled into the street and drifted off amid the worries of my to-do list and of merging safely onto the freeway.

My thoughts were consumed with everything but the small things.

That I’d fallen off task didn’t dawn on me until I was a block from my office. To that point, the only thing I’d noticed was the car in front of me that hadn’t moved when the light turned green.

On the path toward growth and maturation, awareness is the first step.

Without it, not only can you not change, you’re not even cognizant that anything needs changing.

While my failed experiment did heighten my awareness, it just made me aware of how out of it I am.

You have to start somewhere, I guess…

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This article originally appeared on 100 Naked Words.