To Find Magic in the Mundane

Or master it…

Recently, a dear friend recommended a book entitled, The Slight Edge, based on a chapter entitled, “Master the Mundane”.

Fantastic, I thought.

Perhaps this is some kind of creative insight into my core belief that when I find magic in simple mundane events I feel full.

Grate-full. Peace-full. Soul-full.

When I see beyond what on the surface seems ordinary to the extraordinary life force inside, I feel alive.

Whether it’s cutting paper into snowflakes with my boys, or watching the rise and fall of our puppy’s belly while he sleeps– it completely alters my relationship with the world, the people I love, and myself.

I see them. Feel them. Hear them.

And “i” cease to be focused at all on what “I” need, want, should do, be or have. It is a huge relief.

But The Slight Edge chapter called, “Master the Mundane”, is not about this at all. The author is speaking to a different audience with different objectives.

If you are looking for a shift in thinking– a way to go from being annoyed by your commute to maximizing it by, say, learning Spanish to increase your earning potential, it is a great resource.

It is a message about mastering the mundane circumstances in your life to build your personal dream, not the dream of others.

His advice did not speak to me.

Not because it isn’t good. For those stuck in a job they don’t love or struggling to achieve a different kind success, it’s insightful, practical and potentially transformational.

But, for me, as a chronic self-growth multi-tasking maniac, I do far too much of this. I am looking for a way out of our culture’s obsession with productivity, efficiency and our addiction to more, more, more.

I am guilty of all this think-act.

But I know from personal experience when I sink into some silly mundane moment vs. maximizing the variety of possibilities within its time-frame, I am happy. Not the manic YES I am on fuego happy but a more YES this is the meaning of life happy.

It doesn’t make me want to do less or keep my creative wheels from spinning a million miles an hour.

It simply grounds all that activity in something more solid.

Magic.