Details, Details!
I rounded out my season of purging and pruning with cleaning out my car, in preparation for having her detailed for the first time ever.
A Christmas gift from an obviously fabulous friend, I was excited to imagine, and especially to experience my car, my rolling office, my home on wheels, fresh and clean all at once, from the inside out. I recall having my home professionally cleaned before, and anticipated a similar sensation.
I don’t recall her gleaming like this since the day I adopted her. And while she gets a bath weekly, I let a lot of stuff pile up inside. I couldn’t believe how long it took to clear her out just so she could be cleaned. After all, I do intermittently live out of my trunk and never know just what I might need; I was a true girl scout, and embody the essence of the scouting motto; be prepared. But from here on out, I am much more selective regarding what is allowed back in.
Have you ever had your car detailed? Your home professionally cleaned?
Attention to detail is paramount in these arenas.
Attention to detail has never really been my forte. I am much more of a big picture, broad stroke person,
sometimes at the expense of attending to some significant small stuff. Like when I showed up at band camp with everything imaginable except my clarinet. And recently when I arrived at Humor Academy without my notebook. I can’t tell you how many times I have spent days planning and preparing for a party, hand crafting my centerpiece, selecting serve ware and cleaning house, only to find myself standing in the midst of my guests, spotting cobwebs hanging from the chandelier, and Goodwill oil pen pricing on my martini glass. How do these things happen?
My intermittent attention to detail has been magnified recently in my efforts to invoice for military counseling referrals I have been accepting through a national EAP. The paperwork is pretty precise, as I have learned the hard way by having my submissions repeatedly rejected. One bubble left blank results in complete rejection, which is starting to make me more attentive to detail.
What details do you attend to? And which ones are you inclined to ignore?
What things are easy for you to remember, and what are you likely to forget?
We focus on what is important at the moment and that consistently changes. What we focus on expands, and we tend to see more of whatever it is we look for. Sometimes it can be the most subtle detail that captures our attention, and sometimes details go unnoticed. Little is big, and big is little in a lot of ways.
Paying attention to important details is simple; determining which ones are important is the challenge.
Details, details.
