Quotes from Rapt

I love good quotes and so it seems like a good subject for blog posts. The reason I’m thinking about quotes today is I just found a couple I like in a book I just started reading, “Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life” by Winifred Gallagher.

The first is:
Life is the creation of what you focus on – and what you don’t.

The book talks about the vast quantities of stimuli and information all around us, and how we by necessity ignore much of the overload and pay attention to the little bit that is of interest or importance to us. By being mindful of what we focus on rather than leave it random, we can change the nature of our life.

The second is:
You cannot always be happy but you can almost always be focused, which is the next best thing.

I’m treating this quote as food for thought. When focused, I tend to be at peace which is a good place to be. But my focus isn’t the best these days so this quote can be motivation to grow my focus.