A Little Shot of Zen

“How you do anything is how you do everything.”

I was wowed by this quote from Editor Kristin Van Ogtrop’s note in the January 2014 Real Simple.  I also felt:

Introspective.

Intimidated.

And oh, let’s not forget:  Inadequate.

How daunting those few words are!  My self-reflection on how well (or not) I behave, react and perform in the moment led me to the scary possibility that everything I do is crap and my kids see it.  If last night’s supper was a performance barometer, my kids will be able to pen quite the “tell-all” if they become famous.

But in all seriousness, how do we do anything (everything)?  No one is ever consistent in approaching each of life’s tasks.  Just think how exhausting that would be!  We can’t take on everything with aplomb because we are tired, burned out or otherwise occupied.  We are only human!  But what if we just paid attention to how (I think in some circles this would be called mindfulness) attitudes influence actions, and how any adjustment, good or bad, makes a huge difference?

Ok.  That approach is just as exhausting.   So:

What if we tacked this onto the end of the above quote?:

“And kids pay more attention to our actions than our words.”

I think that sharpens it up a little.

And I think we’ll go with kid-friendly tacos for dinner tonight.