Take a moment and try and be quiet for 60 full seconds and just think about one thing during that 60 seconds – it could be baseball, Frito Lays, or Supralapsarianism…okaaayyyy….go! (Waiting patiently…)

How’d you do? Yeah, I know you stunk at it.  How long did it take you to think about that assignment you needed to get working on or that appointment you had later today, or that conversation you had last night? 40 seconds? 30? Go ahead and admit it – you didn’t make it 20 seconds before all those thoughts started flooding in your mind.

Try this: turn off your iPod, TV, laptop, cell phone, and any other noise making device in your room and for 5 straight minutes just sit there and put a virtual recorder on your mind.  Literally just pay attention to the throngs of things your mind will dart to in that span of 300 seconds. (You may have to try this a couple times as the first time you will just be considering how awkward this exercise is).

Now continue this exercise the rest of the day.  When you are reading, talking, watching TV simply pay attention to how your mind is darting around from thing to thing.  You cant keep the TV on the same channel during commercials.  You read Facebook and your eyes dart to the right to see who’s on line, to the top to see how many messages you have.  When you are talking to your friend on the phone, you are also reading an email.  When you are sitting in your office and working on a project you check your phone for a text or start wondering what you are going to do tonight.

I’ve been doing this for the last week and have been absolutely amazed at how undisciplined I am. It’s important, though, you do these exercises and pay attention.  I know you can resonate with these things as you read them, but it is only when you experience them that you might then feel them.

I’m not trying to get all emotive on you.  I just want you to feel the weight of this problem. If I read something and resonate with it, I don’t necessarily feel the weight of the problem. Much like I can read about how sweet honey is, but when I actually go and taste it, oh it is so much better.  So you have to do the hard work of recognizing and feeling your actually worse at being a disciplined thinker than you thought.

Ok, so that’s it for today.  just give that a go, and tomorrow lets come back and try and advance the conversation.