Consider having a book in hand.

Now picture doing so while sitting on a airplane, with minimal distractions, maybe without wifi.

You’ve likely been in such a situation somewhere in your life. What happened?

You may well have started to read. Not only that, but maybe you even started to get into it. And then wondered,

Somewhere in here you might think that you were “forced” to read, because that’s all you could do. But I would suggest that’s not what’s happening.

Our environments supported our ability to simply be.

In being, we are without intention. We stare off into space. We daydream. We exist. It would seem silly to call this anything. How does having no intention relate to work, play, or “productivity” at all?

In our example, we are not forced. No one is forcing our eyes onto the page. No one is forcing the words to travel into our minds. Instead, we move rhythmically back and forth, maybe staring first at the fabric of the seat in front of us, maybe looking at the flight attendant, maybe wondering when they’ll get to our aisle to ask for a drink…

At some point, though we might touch the binding of the book, admiring its craft. How about flipping the book open and look through it a bit.

The words start in their own way.

And then we look back at the fabric, the pattern on the seat becoming more apparent. The flight attendant is coming back. \ > Wait, what do I want to drink?

And back to the book.

On and on this can happen, but somewhere along the way, in this flow back and forth, something happens. We are in it.

We can imagine the characters, the foundational principles, the spirit of the book. What started as slow is now a flow, perhaps even a voracious read. The story warms us, angers us, captures us in the world between words.

When we simply be, we allow ourselves to tune in. We connect at our pace.

So much of work is about crafting our contexts, not just to work, but to support our ability to simply be.

• Kourosh

PS, I call this mode of being the “zeroth gear of focus.”

I’d recently put together a webinar with snazzy slides about the 8 Gears of Focus. I dare say it was a hit! I hope to post more about them so stay tuned.