Get Control Of Your Attention, Control Your Life

“My experience is what I agree to attend to.” -William James, psychologist, historian and philosopher.

The things you give your attention to will greatly influence the experiences you have and it also goes without saying that those experiences will come to bear on the way you live your life.

If you happen to be, for instance, someone who pays a lot of attention to stories about crimes you can end up living a life of constant fear because you will be of the mind that those crimes are far more prevalent than they really are.

“What you focus on expands.”

In the same way, paying a lot of attention to stories of racial injustices will have you thinking everyone is racist and you will see racial undertones even in innocent human interactions. This will be unfortunate because there will be many people whose actions are not racially motivated.
Again, have you ever had the experience that after you finally decided on a new car you suddenly start seeing that model everywhere? Those cars didn’t just magically appear because you made your choice they just didn’t have your attention before.

“In the same way, paying a lot of attention to stories of racial injustices will have you thinking everyone is racist and you will see racial undertones even in innocent human interactions.”

The greatest thief of your attention

First, know that attention is much more than just spending time with, or on something. Simply because you can spend that time without actually paying attention to them because your mind is elsewhere.

So, distractions are the biggest thieves of your attention because they take away your ability to focus on the things that really matter and have you rushing through life skimming and scanning thereby ineffectively spreading this immensely valuable resource (attention) over many different things. Some of which really have no bearing on the overall quality of your life.

And we are living in a time of great distractions with all of them so craftily competing for our attention making it, a lot of the time, very hard to focus on important tasks at hand.

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“If you yourself don’t choose what thoughts and images you expose yourself to, someone else will.”

Photo by Joel Muniz on Unsplash

Life-saving tips

“You must control your attention to control your life.”

To stop your attention from being indiscriminately stolen and keep it on the things that really matter you need to be very intentional about how you direct it, instead of just merely being reactive.
Know your priorities. In all areas of life, if you are not clear on what really matters to you, you will be wavering a like a ship without a sail. Establishing your priorities will make achieving your goals possible and it will also enhance your ability to say, “no” to those distractions.
Make deliberate choices. This no doubt means controlling/blocking all those avenues designed to steal your attention.

“Distractions are the biggest thieves of your attention.”

Think of your attention as a valuable currency. Not only do you need to choose how to wisely spend it or else it is wasted, but you need to safeguard it because many out there are also always looking to steal it from you.
One way to begin realizing the value of your attention is to imagine what would happen if you woke up tomorrow and you have to pay real money for all the things you now pay attention to.
Let’s say you would have to pay $20 every time you look up a friend’s Instagram, Twitter stream, or Facebook. Would you? And how many times a day would you? Because right now you freely give your attention to these platforms without any consideration of the true value of this valuable resource.

Remember, keeping your attention from being stolen is more than just about your ability to stay focused. It is, more importantly, about living a life of conscious choices based on your priorities. This is how you take control.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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