Judgment of Quality
For every gain comes a loss or sacrifice. Then you must ask yourself, is this gain worth this loss or sacrifice? This is a judgment of quality. The judgment of quality requires peace of mind, for careful observation of the feeling of quality. This is the feeling you get when you are absorbed and lose track of time.
Quality feeds interest and interest feeds quality. Something is worth pursuing if the potential for this interest-quality cycle exists. If your interest is lowered due to setbacks, that is fine. Take a break or backtrack to hit that cycle again. Since you already discover that the interest exists, focus on the quality, and the interest will reignite. To be in this state all the time is difficult, and one could even say that it is enlightenment. Enlightenment is a life long effort. Focusing on the niches of life that produce this flow-feeling for you is the way you should make efforts to follow.
Excellent Work
The person who identifies with his work does excellent work. Do excellent work, and you are the person who does excellent work. Do subpar work, and you are the person who does subpar work. The person who does excellent work is not only more favorable to himself but also to the world and will get compensated accordingly by whatever means of being compensated. “Excellent work” depends on the work. It could be work that produces the most efficiency or that which engenders the most beauty or a combination of the two. Your work is something you live, a form of expression. If you put yourself in your work, would you not do a better job of it?
The Floating Eye
Those who focus on quality have a depth to them that reflects the depth of the awareness that goes into recognizing it. This awareness is a sort of floating eye. It doesn’t stop or get caught in that which it observes, but brushes pass it like wind. It still feels, but it doesn’t get tangled up in feelings. It doesn’t fight the wind that carries it and reconciles with what it passes. All that it passes is not lost but taken into consideration for something it doesn’t even know yet. As the eye floats and observes, not getting attached to one place, begins to expand its awareness, and make associations. The floating eye’s true objective which isn’t even a thought, but more of an understanding, is quality.