2: Your Attention is the key
People used to say: ‘survival of the fittest’ as the reason why new things stayed, or got overtaken, however, that has changed. In the last 25 years or so, it has become survival of the loudest, most repeated and most attention grabbing (whether it be surprising, beautiful, emotional or just catchy.)
Particularly in the hearts and minds of the public online.
We are living in crazy times where children are jealous of their parent’s attention on a pocket sized device! Who would have thought?
Yet, most of us use the phone as a soother at some point in the day – either a distraction from something we are uncomfortable doing or to keep our minds occupied so we don’t sit and think too much. I’m not saying they are not amazing tools that we would now find hard to be productive without, but yet…. we are almost handing the reins of our attention over every time we open them.
So what?
In order to thrive we need to feel (and therefore be) valuable to society.
Unless we are born into great wealth and even then, not contributing to the world in some way is rather like playing Mario Kart and just driving off the course. Or as Alan Watts put it, racing each other across the dance floor at a nightclub.
Missing the point on so many levels.
Yet, the attention-grabbing little devices in our pocket trigger the rewarding happy brain chemicals, like dopamine, that we could be getting from achieving valuable things.
Everything online (and the super smart people being paid to care more about your attention than you do) is geared to grab and hold your attention for as long as possible. It is a measurement of value in so many games, learning and social media platforms (these are the new trillion dollar industries.) Maybe AI will help or maybe it won’t, Dan Sodergren (AI Speaker and Futurist) says:
The battle for our attention is the biggest invisible war of our time. AI is both the weapon and the shield—used to keep us engaged but also capable of helping us reclaim focus. As we step into the Fifth Industrial Revolution, this isn't a time for less mindfulness but more... The question is: will we use AI to enhance our goals, or let it distract us from them?"
Add to this the problem that we have become accustomed to a more comfortable life, whilst for most the ability to maintain it for ourselves is slowly being shifted away by the great financial wealth shift that is happening (I’m not getting into that here … maybe another time but it is mainly a distraction to what I am suggesting we should do.)
We are treating discomfort the way we used to treat pain – we try and stop it, avoid it, criminalise it instantly. This is not helping us develop resilience and strength. We really need all our energy to step into the version of ourselves that thrives in a world where AI feels like it is threatening our jobs, the politicians are threatening our sanity and the trolls are threatening our belief in humanity.
So, what to do?
Where attention goes, energy flows.
I adore this saying. I can’t remember where I heard it first – everyone from Law of Attraction coaches to martial arts trainers to business psychologists use it.
If you want results you have to focus on those things; not the things you don’t want.
This is not positive thinking in stupid isolation - I’m not saying ignore all the crap in the world, put your music on and think happy thoughts. That is like putting a smiley face sticker on the warning light on the dash – not helpful.
The answer is creating a focus on how we DO want things to go not what we don’t want. In my analogy this is equivalent to focusing on a car that works perfectly to take you to your destination (which causes you to investigate and fix warning lights not ignore them.)
It also causes you to see that the car is in fact not the object of your desire but a means to get to the destination.
Here in lies the problem.
We are so conditioned by our hypnotic entertainment (TV, phones, games etc) that we have begun to focus on ‘our happy attention’ as the objective we are trying to achieve, when it is in fact, the car that will take us to where we are going.
So where are you going?
Next time I will dig into the wonderful sat nav your car already has and why we are mistakenly tuning into it like a radio station to enjoy listening to, rather than following its instructions!
If you liked this and want to hear more profound nudges to live the life you came for, not just be entertained and just get by, then join my Insights mailing list at the bottom of this page.
If you need some more accountability and inspiration to evolve then I do have a couple of spots open for coaching right now – book a complimentary clarity call here to see if I can help you evolve.
