Unconstrained Quotes
Focus, Mindfulness, and the Resultant "Flow" Experience:
To do two things at once is to do neither. - Publius Syrus
When I dance, I dance; when I sleep, I sleep; yes, and when I walk alone in a beautiful orchard, if my thoughts drift to far-off matters for some part of the time, for some other part I lead them back again to the walk, the orchard, to the sweetness of this solitude, to myself. - Montaigne
Your focus determines your reality. - Qui-Gon Jinn (Star Wars Episode I)
Among the maxims on Lord Haoshige's wall, there was this one: "Matters of great concern should be treated lightly." Among one's affairs there should not be more than two of three matters of what one could call great concern. If these are deliberated upon during ordinary times, they can be understood. Thinking about things previously and then handling them lightly when the time comes is what this is all about. To face an event and solve it lightly is difficult if you are not resolved beforehand, and there will always be uncertainty in hitting your mark. However, if the foundation is laid previously, you can think of the saying, "Matters of great concern should be treated lightly," as your own basis for action. - Yamamoto Tsunetomo [The Book of the Samurai]
If one is but secure at the foundation, he will not be pained by departure from minor details or affairs that are contrary to expectation. But in the end, the details of a matter are important. The right and wrong of one's way of doing things are found in trivial matters. - Yamamoto Tsunetomo [The Book of the Samurai]
The best focus, is to focus on improvement -- not on comparison to others, a standard, or some alleged "best practice". Improve, continuously -- and let the others worry about how they compare to you. Most...organizations spend way too much time and effort on standards, benchmarking, maturity, best practice this and that -- and far too little time actually improving. - Richard Zultner
Ikuno Oribe said, "If a retainer will just think about what he is to do for the day at hand, he will be able to do anything. If it is a single day's work, one should be able to put up with it. Tomorrow, too is but a single day." - Yamamoto Tsunetomo [The Book of the Samurai]
Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs. - Henry Ford
Singlemindedness is all-powerful - Yamamoto Tsunetomo [The Book of the Samurai]
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