Energy Flows Where Attention Goes

This morning I woke up to this:

Yesterday morning, it was a maple syrup bottle covered in ants.

Or it could be school bags scraping on the inside of the car door.

Or drips of pee on the bathroom floor.

There are many things in a working parent’s day where we can react and easily lose sight of the bigger picture. I was almost there this morning…

Instead

Focusing on, my child is making his own breakfast, instead of he’s left the open ingredients out on the bench again.

Reminding myself he’s happy bounding off to school and the car is child friendly (aka marked and messy), instead of focusing on the minor damage to the car door, adding to it’s dings and dents that will probably never be fixed.

And then there’s the pee on the bathroom floor that now smells like a urinal. Reminding myself I draw the line at having a urinal smell in my bathroom and I’ll be addressing that ASAP.

“Energy goes where attention flows”

In her book The Happiness Track, Emma Seppala writes about the science behind Remembering the Bigger Picture. She says, research shows focusing on the why rather than the how or what of a job or task, connects you to what you care about the most and restores your energy.

Mastering your focus, masters your energy. As a working parent, energy efficiency is one of the greatest leadership skills we can possess.

Where do you choose to focus your attention?