Our attention spans are short.

There are so many sources of potential stimulation competing for our attention. Modern technology allows us to bounce from one activity to the next without any sustained focus. You ever wonder what your great grandparents would think about this way of living?

Our patience is thin.

If the internet is slow or the icemaker stops working, boy are we inconvenienced. Some people feel annoyed, others frustrated, and not exactly a small minority feel rage. Isn’t that something? I have a feeling it didn’t always used to be this way. I wish I could talk to my great grandparents about this. Their minds would be blown.

There is something admirable about watching the elderly shop for groceries. Age will eventually slow us all down, so it’s important to pay close attention. The elderly take their time, partly because they have to, but the ones that really impress me are those that take their time with a noticeably unburdened attitude. It’s as if they are delighted to have found this piece of wisdom.

I’m not exactly sure, but I think the trick is that they truly embrace doing one thing at a time. They just do this, then just that, then just the next thing. Their attention is fully absorbed by each step. Their mindset is calm and patient, with a bend towards positivity. I bet they make fewer mistakes.

Nike was off by a word. The mantra should be “just do this.” Whatever the task is, “just do this.” It’s a useful challenge and a way to ground oneself in the task at hand. This approach can also help us manage anxiety, keep our obsessive, futuristic thinking in check, and maybe, just maybe, we’ll make fewer mistakes too.

Regardless of how much of a do-it-all-all-at-once kind of person one thinks they are, it’s important to acknowledge that our mental capacity is limited. I like to think of the mind as a cup of hot coffee. If you pour too much coffee into the cup, it overflows. But it’s not just overflow that can be a problem. The cup can also be filled too high, which means any slight stumble can lead to a spill. A properly poured cup of hot coffee leaves some space at the top for wiggle room.

Our smart phones are more like a fire hydrant than a Keurig: the light from our screen blares into our eyes, the seductive content we’re rapidly scrolling through, the insecurities that are evoked from all the posts from perfect people, the sensationalized news headlines, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. You know what I’m talking about. The smartphone alone is overflowing many of our mental coffee cups. Add on work, relationships, household chores, and basic self-care, and we quickly realize we may need an inground pool to hold all the metaphorical coffee we’re pouring. But hey, a little space at the top, right?

I digress. Because we don’t honor the nature of our limited minds, our ability to focus is strained, and our patience is shot. We’re stumbling and fumbling, and the costs of our spills can be severe. We have to learn to pour less coffee. Our sanity is on the line.

So, I’ll close with this mantra instead: “just do this and pour less coffee.”