What Socrates would say about the modern world

I presented a short talk last week in which I made reference to an old quote attributed to Socrates at his heresy trial; “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

It has always been a favorite, perhaps because it partially validates my choice to start each day in meditation and contemplation. However on this particular morning it conjures up my own personal heresy because I think Socrates was not simply referring to the thought behind self-examination, but also to the subsequent requirement to act on the possibilities uncovered.

We live in a world of distractions. There have never before been so many avenues down which we may travel to diversion from the task at hand or the present situation. The outlets for our entertainment in the world of audio/visual seem endless. That is not even to mention the black holes of twitter and face book, where we might get lost for untold hours on end expressing our every secret and activity to the known universe. While some might think these portals to be a pathway to self-examination, they would seem to be more the road to an outer exhibitionism than some inward journey.

Socrates might have been quite amused, certainly by me. I have long known that I spend an inordinate amount of time distracted by the time wasters. Somehow I manage to deceive myself into thinking that I am doing something productive in the way of expanding my exposure or networking my talents. In truth, the self-examined evidence would suggest that I am actually avoiding real “work” under the guise of some imagined on line marketing.

I received a very interesting message regarding this “all action, no production” farce yesterday. Since being trained as an intuitive counselor a few years ago, I have learned to have great faith in those who can use their more highly tuned inner sense to help others with direction and guidance – I do it myself with my clients – and I know the value of “seeing” more for the person I am guiding than they might see for themselves at a particular time. So yesterday, an intuitive who I had occasion to meet about four months ago, was doing some work with me. She has never been to my home and seen my office, nor have I ever told her of my concern about being distracted and feeling like I am deceiving myself into thinking I am building my business when, in fact, I am really just wasting time.

Regardless, she mentioned three different times, in forty five minutes, how it was time for me to pay attention to where I am being distracted and to put my distractions aside. She also made a reference to “clearing out and cleaning up” my work space, but that is a “whole ’nother blog”. Understand, I would not be the least surprised to have had this type of intuitive “hit” with my own client, but for some reason, this particular insight from my friend regarding my own circumstances really had an impact.

I imagine right now, as I write this, how much I am really distracted and how much I am really not getting done if that information is in the one mind as part of my bio. After all, that is what I do as an intuitive, access the universal knowledge of my client, and that is what she did with me. It almost feels a little embarrassing. But, message received!

The self-examined life would be one where the awareness I have just received becomes the springboard I use to jump over this long-developing speed bump. Time for me to recognize that I have now spent enough of my life building a description of myself and my activity that is not what I want to be constructing. Time to recognize that I intend to be known as someone who uses time wisely and for growth. The only way that will be the truth is to take the awareness of those moments of ill-used time to put aside distraction and move into purpose. Defining purpose is the work I do with my clients. It is time to be a model of that work.