Mental energy flows where our attention goes
#7 - Where we point the focus of our attention is where we will expend our energy. Can we confidently say we are spending it wisely?
“Whenever you want to achieve something, keep your eyes open, concentrate and make sure you know exactly what it is you want. No one can hit their target with their eyes closed.”
― Paulo Coelho
Let us try a brief mental exercise together. Click on this video link and watch the content for 40 seconds to become familiar with the premise of what the woman is about to explain.
As she begins to explain how to dig through the mountain without modern tools around the 40 second mark, pull out your phone and start browsing one of your social media accounts at the same time while the video plays on in the background. A book works for this as well if you are currently reading this writing on your phone.
Let the video play through while you read the contents of your screen or the pages of your book. Do your best to intake the information from both sources at the same time as you split your attention between them. Do this now, and then come back here to read on.
Once your attention was split between the two differing forms of content, what did you comprehend from each source? Did one of them tune the other one out, or did you simultaneously absorb the totality of information being conveyed by each?
Whether you were browsing social accounts to learn what your friends had for breakfast or reading a book about all the different breeds of cats, the question is, can you re-articulate how to tunnel through the mountain once the video is finished? Can you remember even one or two things that the lady in the Numberphile video explained? Ask yourself what happened when you split the focus of your attention between the two things, and where your mental energy was spent.
Wherever we point our attention, our mental energy flows. The eagle above this text is actively hunting, and the eagle will never ever take its eyes off of what it is hunting once it is locked on and swooping in for the kill, unless a greater threat is present. Perhaps the eagle is showing us something very important about how our minds work as well.
Expand what we’ve thought about together, and apply it to your life. Are there any areas that need attention, but due to a splitting of that attention, are not getting enough of your focused and driven energy? You already know what is needed to attain what you want, we all do, but when our attention is split into different areas, what are we truly getting done?
We each have access to a finite amount of energy each day before we go to sleep to recharge and power up for the next, and we must each make choices of how we will spend it in every moment of our waking life. A friend of mine, Mark Sandstorm, once told me, “Stay focused like a laser beam”, and I will never forget those words. I think about them almost daily, and I want to thank Mark for that incredible advice. If one were to unfocus a laser beam, it would simply light up the room they were in, but when focused, it would cut right through the walls.
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As we practice this week, we will give our full attention to whatever it is we are doing while we are doing it, without splitting our focus. We will be present exactly where we are whether it is in conversation with a loved one, working on our business idea, building a model car, playing with our dogs, and everything else we choose to burn our finite attentive energy on throughout the day. We will point our full attention at each thing, focus it like a laser beam, and we will each directly experience what happens without distractions getting in the way.
When we are working on whatever we do, we will put our phones on silent, or leave them in another room. Nothing is better at interrupting our flow than those pesky push notifications that cut right through even the best of our focus.
Remember: The archer keeps their eye firmly on the center of the target in order to hit the bull’s eye 🎯
Which bull’s eye will you hit this week in your life? The rest of us are all rooting for you to nail it. You absolutely can do it if you focus your full attention on what you want, instead of splitting it up and giving it away to the low hanging fruit that surrounds you.
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Drop a comment below to share what you are focusing on this week, and smash that <3 button while you’re at it. If you are asking yourself, “Who is this guy and why am I sitting here reading what he has to say”, then start here at #1.
BONUS PUPPY PHOTO FOR THE READERS WHO MADE IT ALL THE WAY THROUGH!
The Juiceman says, “the juice is worth the skweeze, twust me!!”