Life is a How, not a What

Modern life tends to blur things together, such that we start to focus on particular events. The "stuff" between those events, therefore, tend to be reduced to nothing more than a means to that end.

For example, we may look at "the year ahead" and isolate 10 or so key dates -- dates which, in a way, shape that particular year. A baby may be due, a birthday may be imminent, a graduation, a performance review, a vacation, an operation...anything. And even if we shorten the time span -- say, to a month, a week or sometimes even a day -- we can tend to view the passage of time as nothing more than avenues that lead to a particular outcome; a "thing" on a list that needs to be crossed off.

This, we must admit, is good for efficiency. It gets "stuff done" (whether all of that stuff actually needs to get done is another question). But, without question, this "to-do list" or "event-centered" approach to life is rather efficient (especially compared to, say, an ostrich or zucchini; neither of which have to do lists or personal organizers and therefore never get anything really done).

However...

Life is not about to do lists. It's not an output-based phenomenon; it's a process. And that means that the how of what you do is more important than the what; because in the truest sense of the word: there is no what, there is only how. The "what" then becomes, simply, a way of seeing the "how."

So ask yourself: are you living a what or a how?