*In this series of posts, The Ever Slightly Improving Life, I will try to share the small details in everyday life that I think you can change to improve yourself, ever so slightly but relentlessly, as a person overall. I will include the things I implemented successfully on me, and I hope you will join the discussion of anything I say. *

A buddhist adage goes:

"When you walk, just walk. When you sit, just sit; but whatever you do, don't wobble."

The way I interpreted it, it means: be mindful, "in the moment", and concentrated on whatever activity you are doing in any given moment, without distracting your thoughts between many different focal points. If you pride yourself of being laborious, maybe even adept at multitasking, it will happen to you to start one thing before you finished another, to start taking a step away from the door before the last turn of the key has completed, to reach for the door handle before having fully turned towards it; and you will fumble and wobble, get your keys stuck and fumble them, miss the handle with your hand and grab the air like a chump.

If, instead, you fully concentrate on turning your keys in the lock and do it purposefully, then pull them out and into your pocket, then turn and walk away; if you finish your sentence before turning and reaching for that handle, you will look and feel more at ease in carrying yourself through the world.

But once you start applying this maxim, you won't be able to help but apply it to everything in life. I started carrying bags differently: before, I could let them dangle from two or three fingers; now I firmly grasp them in my closed fist. I walk more purposefully, because I'm not thinking about the date I have tomorrow but rather about the road I'm walking. When I put my documents and folders in my briefcase, they, which used to tend to get messed up and fly around, as I absentmindedly pushed them into the brief, march into it in cautious order, now that my entire focus is unto the task while I gather them.

Thank you for your attention.