Don't Let Your Attention Slide

Don't Let Your Attention Slide

Meditation for April 21, 2021

April 21, 2021 7:00 AM

“When you let your attention slide for a bit, don't think you will get back a grip on it whenever you wish — instead, bear in mind that because of today's mistake everything that follows will be necessarily worse… Is it possible to be free from error? Not by any means, but it is possible to be a person always stretching to avoid error. For we must be content to at least escape a few mistakes by never letting our attention slide.”

- Epictetus, Discourses, 4.12.1; 19

Habits and distractions. One can not exist in the presence of the other. it is hard to imagine a world with more distractions than we have today. Technology and gadgets provide us access to more content than we can view in a hundred lifetimes. How are we to build good habits with so many distractions?

Conclusion

We must prioritize those items that are good so that we can give them our full attention. We only have so much time in our lives, and we would do well not to squander that time with distractions.