At the recent Tribewriter Conference,  Good Life Project author & speaker Jonathan Fields challenged us with the key concept in being successful in life is to pay “exquisite attention” to the important things.

More on that later.

His comments prompted me to  ponder this word exquisite.  I asked the GHC community what their first thought was when they heard the word ‘exquisite’.

Debbie said precious.
James thought God’s creation.
Bethany wrote perfectly crafted.
Claressa saw a diamond.
Kathy T sensed fragile.
Abby shared elegant.
Sandra wrote breathtakingly perfect in every way.

Yes! Yes! & Yes!  Those are definitely words I would think of too.

Honestly, I might think of beautifully cut jewels or dainty, fine porcelain China on display on a crystal clear glass case so they can be enjoyed by sight only. One mustn’t touch such flawless elegance.

Only I picture myself as “that girl” that must carry a much too large, way too heavy handbag over her shoulder.  Try as hard as I might to keep my bag away from the delicate displays, I still manage to stir considerable gasps from others nearby as I “almost” bring the whole thing crashing down.

This has never happened mind you! I can just vividly imagine in full color the embarrassment I would feel in such a exquisite predicament. Crude, imperfect, horrifying – these are antonyms  of that definition of”exquisite”. That would petty much describe how I would feel.

Yet Jonathan Fields challenged us to pay “exquisite” attention ?
What does that look like?

I pursued a deeper study of the word. I wish I could share it all with you- because it is fascinating.  But… you can do your own word study. Here is a summary of what I found.

Exquisite is defined as:

• dainty: delicate, fragile, fine
• artistic: beautiful, satisfying to senses
• beautiful: physically attractive
• beautiful, excellent, finely crafted
• delectable: delicious, enjoyable

But Exquisite also means intense, or even acute- severe, intense. 

Synonyms: concentrated, desperate, distressing, excruciating, extreme, fierce, furious, keen, overpowering, overwhelming, piercing, poignant, powerful, sharp, stabbing, terrible, transcending, vehement, vicious, violent.

So why in the world would I include in this blog post about EXQUISITE all this information that you could find for yourself in a dictionary or thesaurus (a writer’s best friend)?  Well,

1. I love words.  And some of these synonyms are …well, exquisite!
2. actually the compilation of these words is giving me an exquisite picture of what Jonathan was referring to when he shared the importance of exquisite attention.

But before I go on to share my thoughts with you,  I would love to hear your ideas as to what you think Jonathan might have been referring to.

What is ‘exquisite attention“? 
And why do you think it is so important?

Leave your comments below.  I’ll try to use some of them in my next post.

Thanks in advance for your adding your thoughts to my ponderings.