http://elizabethgilbert.comI have been told (in a nice-ish way) that I am often unable to focus. It’s like I can’t pay attention. Not in the capital letter attention deficit way, just a tendency to move on in a conversation beyond where it began. The people I am speaking with wonder where I have “gone” and are confused and annoyed. Sometimes I cannot help that unrelated ideas and and thoughts sneak into my head in spite of the subject at hand.
Since I have heard about my mind wandering from so many people, I began to wonder if I had something really wrong with me. Was something missed when I was young? Our parents gave us good medical care. We had eyeglasses and allergy shots and the alltime evidence of excellent parenting – a retainer.
It becomes easy to self-diagnose when we are consulting with ourselves about ourselves. Consider what writer Elizabeth Gilbert has to say in her talks about creativity and passion with topics like, “Are you a jackhammer or a hummingbird?”.
Seeing myself as a hummingbird was the perfect remedy for my self-doubts. She speaks about following your “curiousity”, even if you are unclear about the destination. Many of us are nervous that we are not lead by a named and well-defined “passion”. We live happily is a state of not having a five-year plan. It’s not as if we are lost. We are just open to all the rabbit holes of all of the new things to learn. I’m OK!