Direct Attention

Attention is a pivotal part of our lives and shapes the direction of our relationships, experiences, and time on Earth. Who we pay attention to generally become the people we are closest to. These people are people we care about and deliberately choose to listen to their words, pick up on their subtle body language cues and notice when things are different. The experiences we choose to lend our attention require our focus, effort, and dedication but also tend to bring us the most rewarding results. Arguably the best use of our attention is figuring out how to use it to direct our life. Through our attention, we are able to dictate how the story of our lives unravels. Similar to deciding which plants in our garden to water, by choosing where we direct attention, we are choosing parts of our lives to take form.

There is a need to become better at directing attention because focus is vital for improving. Multitasking is a lie and our society impresses upon us at a young age that we must do many things in order to be deemed successful. In school, we have 5 or more different subjects we are taking at one time. All have different coursework and different assignments and all require our attention. We must partition our time to perform effectively in each. This conversation is not intended to dissect the school system as much as it is intended to show from a young age, we are not taught to choose where to direct our attention. We are taught that in order to be successful, through good grades, we must pay attention to everything.

Many valedictorians get lapped in their professional lives compared to their peers, regardless of native intelligence or test scores. Direct attention is a big reason because any “average” person who better invests their time and attention will soon see the compounding effect of their work. In this sense, hard work, the direct attention, is able to beat the “talent,” the multitasker, with relative ease over the long run.

We can choose to cultivate this skill of directing our attention by being deliberate with our time. In the age of hyper-stimulation, we should utilize barriers so that we are not constantly distracted. We should map out our schedules into blocks of time so we know exactly what we should be working on and when. We should do what we can to grant our minds the easiest path to direct attention and focus as possible. By choosing how, when, and on what to direct our attention, our lives will see greater fulfillment than if we are aimlessly wandering through what snags our attention at any particular moment. Directing our attention is a vote for a higher quality of living.