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People who know me know that when I think people aren’t paying attention, it drives me crazy. Too often we see people who don’t pay attention. They’re looking at their phone instead of driving. They’re reading email instead of paying attention to the webinar that they’re logged onto. They’re typing on their keyboard during a conference call instead of listening to, and interacting with, people in the meeting. I’ve written about the “paying attention” topic before (here and here) – that’s how much I pay attention to these things.

Then we have what occurs when people aren’t paying attention to details. They send off an email without proofreading it, and it ends up creating what may be a massive misunderstanding among employees, confusion for a client, or just plain embarrassment. They make a remark without paying attention to what others may think – and sometimes this lands people into big trouble, especially those in the public eye.

But I want to ask a question: Are you paying attention to your life?

Have you ever felt like some people are just going through their life without ever paying attention to it? They move from one task to another in their work without giving it their full attention. They feel they are just too busy and have to get so much done, they don’t pay attention to all the details.

I wonder, do you think they miss out on enjoyment of what they’re doing? Or maybe they have conversations with their friends and family and are not fully engaged because they’re distracted by their phone, television, or something else. I have observed this at times in the world.

We only get one life to live, and I think we should be giving it our full attention. Some people call this mindfulness. Whatever you call it, I hope you’re giving your life on all levels your full attention.

-Sue Voyles