#282 – From lack to abundance––what happens when you change your focus?

Yesterday, while doing my morning pages on the train platform, I noticed something: instead of reporting all the wonderful things I'd enjoyed so far in the day, I wrote about the two things I'd missed––my meditation session and my A Course In Miracles lesson.

I realized that's a usual pattern for me, perhaps inherited from a K-12 education in a French school in the 70s and 80s: perfection was expected and only misses were pointed at.

I've also done this when applying to positions: instead of thinking about all the ways I could contribute to the company, I focus on what I don't have––skills, experience, knowledge.

Has this hurt me? If the statement "what you focus on grows" is true, then I'm sure it has.

Focusing on my lacks with so much intention and attention throughout my life must have expanded the gaping void of what I don't have. Instead of acknowledging the abundance that is real in my life, I've devoted myself to finding holes.

So I now ask myself: what will change when I start to track all the ways in which my life is abundant? Hence, the experiment I'm starting and proposing you today:

"Would you, every day for 30 days, focus on your life's abundance––re: all things you receive or do that contribute to your experience?"

For me, yesterday morning, that was: "writing and sending a newsletter; a rich, nourishing breakfast; delicious coffee; time to read some Substacks; solving the Wordle puzzle in three turns; sprinting to the bus stop and catching it; a conversation with my son; the smile and nod of a stranger wishing me a good day."

Focusing on the misses only means that I expect perfection.

But life's supposed to be an unfolding experience, not a perfect one.

What has made your life abundant today?

Love,

Carolina