
The Excellent Textbook
As a student, I’d look at the year’s textbook and easily feel awed by the amount of material. It would be all too easy to turn away, often not even realizing that I’d done so, happily enjoying a game, barely thinking of the work ahead.
But some textbooks were excellent. They’d draw me in.
Wherever I was, I felt I was getting somewhere. Or if I got lost, it seemed to have a way of saying,
“Hey, take a look back here. You may have missed something,”“Maybe this example could help?”
or maybe
“Here’s an exercise to bring it together.”
The author gave me a sense that all I needed was to be with the material in the Now. It didn’t say I needed to know everything. Instead, it seemed to anticipate at least some of my questions, giving me leads where I lacked or lost information to help me understand.
It told me what was relevant to where I was.
Even when I took several steps back, I felt I was gaining ground.
That momentum tended to permeate the rest of my studies, days, and play. For example, I could better tell where another textbook wasn’t working in my favor, but now I had greater confidence to know that and to then find another path.
Generalizing further, I began to more experientially realize that if I don’t understand something, that my frustrations were signals, my intuition trying to point me in a direction.
But I get ahead of myself.
It began with this teaching vessel of a book. Increasingly, I realize building such vessels is a practiced skill and art.
As I’ve built out the Waves of Focus, I’m fully aware of the amount of material involved and how overwhelming that might feel. The latest module, Crafting Messages, adds 2 plus hours of videos, exercises, and the like.
I do not sacrifice material, and there is no fluff.
More importantly, though, I aim to support that sense of the Now. Doing so allows a person to take things at their pace, giving them what’s relevant to the moment. Each step presents something to build on or build from, hopefully furthering a sense of growing strength and momentum.
There is no need to know everything. All that’s needed is a Visit, being here Now.
Any step, forward or backward, is still a step forward, under your guidance, attuned to the moment.
– Kourosh
PS Last week’s post, which included a piano composition called “Wooden Hills”, seemed to be quite the hit. Several of you emailed me with such kind words. If you’re interested, check out my next live performance this Monday, June 3rd, at 7pm Central. Hit the buzzers, subscribes, and all the buttons. It’ll make you feel good. At least, that’s what the dopamine tells me.
Join the Weekly Wind Down Newsletter
Get a weekly letter about getting to play and meaningful work. Start getting where you want to be with calm focus. You’ll receive free samples of:
- Creating Flow with OmniFocus
- Taking Smart Notes with DEVONthink
- Workflow Mastery
- PDF on beating deadlines with ease using the Touching the Keys Technique
Recent Posts
Reviewing Large Projects
Large projects can be difficult to navigate for any number of reasons. When I refer to large projects, I mean those that span at least several OmniFocus projects and possibly several folders of projects.1 Here is an example from Zen & The Art of...
Bach’s Toccata in D minor – an Extended Reinterpretation
Bach's Toccata is a glorious piece. In this particular performance, I play the unmodified work on the piano and then begin a reinterpretation starting with a swelling synthesizer. The synthesizer is a customized patch using Steinberg's Halion. The piano is a Yamaha...
Courage to Pause
Post also at Zen & The Art of Work
Zen & the Piano
Music reflects life as does art in general. The pieces in Zen & the Piano comprise young and old tracks. Some works have lived and evolved over many years, while others appear only once as improvisations, never to be performed again. Most are somewhere in...
Quick Entry & Inbox Settings in OmniFocus
The Inbox and setting preferences …
Zen & The Art of Work – Accomplish more. Stress less.
Zen & The Art of Work is a set of exercises to help you do more and stress less. It can help you in fields of business, school, the creative arts, home and more. You can even learn to develop a path of mastery in whatever field you choose. The course can help...
Zen & The Art of Work – Find calm in work and play.
Announcing – Zen & The Art of Work – Exercises for Mastery
Affiliate status?
I’ve put a new product together that I hope to release in the next few weeks. (Look out for a snazzy announcement soon.) Alongside the release, I’ve been thinking about opening my suite of products (including Creating Flow with OmniFocus and Workflow Mastery) to...
Review of Working with OmniFocus – Online Course
The following is a review of the website WorkingwithOmniFocus.com and the videos there. I received a complimentary copy of the product in order to write the review. Joe Buhlig has been a solid voice in the OmniFocus and productivity community. He has been blogging...