Though they provide a healthy rush of dopamine, it isn't the achievement of our goals that sustains our wellbeing; but the state of sustained focus required to secure them. If your concentration is broken for a few moments, it has the power to derail the course of your life to a degraded position as one breach begets another. You alone must set your coordinates & enact negative responses to all potential openings for a break in your flow. A forty minute journey can turn into forty years if you allow distractions to sway your velocity. A path begins & ends in the mind. Even if you haven't taken bodily action, & it looks from the outside that you've made no progress, & opportunities appear to engage with the sensory world in novel ways, you must still keep your thoughts on your aim through attending to it. Otherwise, experience the cheap thrills & deep pains of getting lost. If you have no physical plans built yet, make your plan to think about what can be done & avoid the instantly gratifying suggestions of ready made maps others present to you because it appears you're available to drift as they do. Sure they mean well, & they enjoy your company. But they stay as long as it's comforting & won't be present in those difficult moments of uphill work to reach the next platform. For those rare individuals who acknowledge & support the climb, who sweat & grit their teeth beside you, keep them in your company for life as their perception of you is beyond the ephemeral moments into your essence. These timeless companions are truly valuable. Those who appear at dinner once the table has been set, know them to be like grains of sand you attempt to grasp by the ocean’s shore. They laugh with you but will not weep; & their presented schematics will be forgotten by a change of wind demonstrating their half baked conviction. Be weary of those who are certain to celebrate but unclear about struggling with you. For this is a mere shadow of kindness & reveals the mark of a convenience seeker who searches to build fleeting moments of pleasure. They are energy vultures that feast from the steps of another's ethic who have examplified little to none of their own. They are not evil, just immature & short sighted. Those with longer scopes make temples the myopic may bask in; though they complain, scoff, & misunderstand during the construction. Everyone in time benefits from the relatively small sacrifices necessary to attain a larger reward. & a key aspect of this offering to a better future is the militant restriction of attention from wandering across a field of shiny objects to instead remain steady on one point of evolution. Only one door at a moment can be opened, & the imminent fear of unceasing time & impending death causes many of us to fall into the superficial trap of spending time to crack many doors to receive many different glimmers of excellence. This kaleidoscopic stimulation displays an illusion of progress. At a deeper look into the nature of fulfillment, we can find it’s far wiser to abstain from the plethora to focus on opening the one best door you can find. & not just with a sliver of reception, but fully released so none of its bounty is hidden from observation. In this position after consolidated effort has been invested, you can be still & at ease with the multidimensional wealth you've uncovered from one source as there is no other to divide yourself with. There is only one you, one attention, & one universe. So let his fact of one send you not into scarcity, but the one liberated state we all seek through the universal power of concentration. All of our north stars await our attendance to their glory.
