Pay attention now:
No matter how much you know or learn about syntax, grammar, and rhetoric,
This small internal quaver, this inner disturbance,
Is the most useful evidence you’ll ever get.
Someday, you’ll be able to articulate what causes it.
But for now, what’s important is to notice it.
Noticing is always the goal.
Actually, the goal right now is noticing that you’re noticing.
One day merely noticing will be enough.
Soon you’ll know exactly how to find the things that are going wrong
As well as the things that are going right.
But until then – and even long after – you’ll find it easier to detect a problem by the disturbance is causes you.
Verlyn Klinkenborg in “Several short sentences about writing”
These notes are about writing. But, they could easily have been about decision making .
Much of learning how to make better decisions in our lives is listening for that disturbance within. We may not always know why. But, noticing and listening to them saves us a lot of pain and heartache in the long run.
“Noticing is always the goal.”
Indeed.
