You can wear a plethora of devices to count or track everything from the number of steps you take, to the hours you sleep, to heart rate, blood pressure, and geographic location.
Once I tracked my sleep for several days and found I have a 97% sleep efficiency – I no longer check on that. If I were rested, I slept well and if I weren’t…. My phone tells me where I am if I can’t figure it out, and my blood pressure and heart rate are not of moment to moment concern.
So all I have is a plain Fitbit. I confess, seeing the dots light up on my wristband or noticing the bar on my phone go from 0 to 10,000 steps gives me a small thrill.
Recently, I recommitted to upping my steps. Saturday was a gorgeous day and I was heading out to get those when I looked at my Fitbit and was disappointed to discover that my battery had discharged. I had a choice – postpone my walk until I could charge my Fitbit OR walk and not “count” my steps. (My friends on Fitbit might think I was slacking off, I wasn’t’ going to “get credit,” or what if it started to rain, and I didn’t walk at all?)
I asked myself what really counted? Of course it was the steps my legs would take, the fresh air in my lungs, the endorphins I produced as I exercised in the glory of a beautiful spring day.
As I headed out the door without my Fitbit, I was reminded of Albert Einstein’s quote:
Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted.
So this week pay attention to what really counts in your life – love, passion, kindness, forgiveness, persistence, generosity and more.
Let me know what you have on your list of things that count that you can’t count.
Until next Tuesday.
Elizabeth
Once we are done with Passover, which will end this coming weekend, we’ll be in the period of the Omer. During this seven week period, each day is counted.
Just mechanically recited the number each day is not very useful, just like it isn’t useful just to look at the digits on your fitbit. But you can use the period of the counting of the Omer for inner growth. You can reflect and develop of one aspect each day for the 49 days of the counting. This is one way to make every day “count”!
There’s a couple of books related to this practice if you’re interested in them. I don’t want to link to them, for fear of having this comment marked as potential spam. Do an internet search on Rabbi Simon Jacobson and his book, The Spiritual Guide to Counting the Omer, or Rabbi Ted Falcon, and his book, Journey of Awakening: Kabbalistic Meditations on the Tree of Life.
Thanks Claire for your thoughtful reply and especially for the references. I look forward to reading them.
e