Take back your attention
Here is an excellent article by Tony Schwartz, CEO of The Energy Project, at Fast Company, entitled Take Back Your Attention. His main thesis, one that my readers know I subscribe to as well, is that the computer, with email, FaceBook, Google, and a plethora of other fun toys and semi-useful activities, can be a distraction in addition to being a powerful tool. Here are some of the money quotes:
“The easier it is to indulge our desires, the harder it is to exercise self-control.”
“Human beings weren’t designed to manage the level of temptation to which we’re exposed every day. That’s why — irrational as it is — we take on more and more debt, grow fatter and fatter, continue to profligately spend down the earth’s finite resources ,and struggle to pay attention to anything for very long.”
“We now know, for example, that it’s more immediately exciting to flit from subject to subject than it is to stay concentrated on one thing at time.”
So what does he recommend? Here is the abridged version, I recommend you go read the full one.
- Let your deepest values become a more powerful guide to your behaviors
- Slow down
- Build deliberate practices
- Create “precommitments” to minimize temptation
- Share your commitments
- Start small
These practices will get your brain working for you instead of against you.
Dave Kaisar trained at the Coaches Training Institute and certified by the International Coaching Federation. He has worked with dozens of clients to achieve remarkable results, including revenue growth, clearer strategic direction, enhanced leadership, and promotions to positions of greater responsibility. Dave has 20 years of corporate and academic experience and has worked in Finance, Marketing and Project Management. He holds a Doctorate in Linguistics from the University of Chicago, a Masters in Russian from the University of Arizona, and a Bachelors in Finance from Georgetown University. His website is Dark Matter Consulting
– is a deeply personal issue that everyone decides for himself. Sometimes the price is high, sometimes low. But this is not very important for life. Life is an interesting thing. And the price on Viagra – too.
