Wow, this week was intense.

World Domination Summit had a lot of this:

And ended like this:

It was fantastic.  I’ve already bought my ticket for next year.

I felt inspired, moved, overwhelmed, and…..distracted.

Here I am with Jenny Shih and Allison Crow, two fantastic friends and colleagues. And even as I’m taking the photo– I AM THE ONE TAKING IT– I’m distracted.

I kept finding myself, even in the midst of all this amazing stuff, feeling a little blah.

I kept looking around to see if I was missing something better that might be happening over to the left.

I wanted a HIT.

I wanted a hit of something so intense and visceral that it would sweep me up in the moment and absolutely compel my attention.

And when the weekend didn’t immediately deliver that, I felt pouty and disappointed.

I think a lot of us live our lives this way.  We turn to TV shows to make us laugh, lovers to make us feel passionately alive, and a steady stream of social media to make us feel connected.

That’s not a bad thing.

But it can only take you so far.  They’re a pale substitute for your own real life.

That’s what I realized, sitting in the gorgeous Arlene Schnitzer concert hall, listening to some of the smartest, most compassionate people in the world.  As long as I was waiting for THEM to make me feel a certain way, I still felt bored and blah.

This is why people can be sitting on an amazing white sand beach and sipping a mai tai while gazing at dolphins cavorting in sparkling blue water, and still feel genuinely irritated about their towels or the wifi connection.

Your surroundings, the people around you, the classes you take, the nature you walk in– they can only make you feel good in proportion to the quality of attention you’re willing to give them.

And this is also why I can be sitting in my humble little living room, sitting on my same old little couch, drinking the same earl grey tea I drink every morning, and find myself absolutely swooning with the overwhelming beauty of the very cells of my existence.

Because I’m paying attention.

So where will you put your attention today?

I finally got my hit at WDS last weekend.  I finally put down my phone, breathed into my belly, and let myself really listen to what the speakers were saying.  When the brilliant women came to our meetup at The Nines on Sunday night, I just let myself really hear their stories and tell them mine.  (And I got so absorbed in their delightfulness that I forgot to take a single picture!)  And when DJ Praschad pumped amazing music through Pioneer Square Sunday night, I gave myself over to the music, to the warm air on my skin, and to the simple joy of moving in time to the throbbing waves of sound.

Bliss.

I had my hit.

Your bliss is right there, closer than you know.  All it requires is your full attention.