When quality is missing within your life, what criterion are you ignoring that reflects that quality?
Is your life missing quality in a specific area? Have you wondered why? Often, we realize we’re unsatisfied with some aspect of our quality of life. Maybe it’s the quality of our family life. Or a less-than-satisfying circle of friendships. Whatever the area of quality we’re missing, it’s almost always about choice or focus of effort.
When the quality is generated outside of ourselves, then it is based on a choice we’ve made. Consider Jean, who recently watched a film and didn’t like it because it was far too violent. While she didn’t write or make the film, she did choose to watch it.
If the quality is one we generate, then increasing quality is about focusing our capability to produce the quality desired. If Jean is the person making the film and she realizes it’s too violent, she must make the changes that will make it less violent.
In either case, it is about identifying and focusing on the criterion that represents quality.
In the film example, the criterion is violence. The greater the level of violence, the less Jean likes the film. This isn’t an objective measure, but what Jean identifies as “quality” within her own life.
In a situation of choice (where the quality is NOT under our control), if we are not conscious of the criterion that indicates quality when we make the choice, the chances are good that we’ll regret our decision because the quality was not there for us. Back to Jean: She saw the trailer and read the reviews, all of which showed or mentioned the violence in the film. If she ignores these and sees it anyway, she’s not going to like the film (quality will be lacking for her).
If we are in charge of producing the quality and don’t have that criterion in our list of criteria for quality, then we aren’t conscious about producing that quality. If Jean is making the film and isn’t consciously focused on keeping the level of violence low, then she’s going to be unhappy with the final quality of the film (as someone who doesn’t enjoy violent movies).
If you want a quality in your life, define the criterion that represents the quality and use it in making decisions and in producing those things in your control.
