I am not absentminded. It is the presence of mind that makes me unaware of everything else. ~ G.K. Chesterton
What is your undivided attention worth?
If you’re like most of us – it’s likely a precious commodity in short supply.
Maybe you have trouble focussing on your work because you’re switching between multiple tabs on your browser in search of something more interesting.
Maybe you’re struggling to focus your attention in your conversations. You try to listen but you’re distracted by the inner dialogue going on in your brain. Maybe it’s the constant buzzing of your smartphone – each alert brimming with the promise of something more exciting then the previous one.
Maybe you’re having a hard time getting the attention of others because their ears are covered with the latest expensive brand headphones while their eyes are glued to glowing screens – the combination is a formidable barrier to human connection.
So where is all this precious attention going?
We don’t often think of our attention as valuable but large corporations do. They invest huge sums of money to find ever more effective ways to get our attention.
Whatever is not caught or converted into sales by skilled marketers, disappears into the black hole of dissatisfaction (usually manifested by restlessness and boredom).
In his book The World Beyond Your Head, Matthew B. Crawford writes:
…in a culture saturated with technologies for appropriating our attention, our interior mental lives are laid bare as a resource to be harvested by others.
Yes, your attention has real monetary value, but it also has an even greater spiritual value.
Jones, the main character in Andy Andrew’s book The Noticer, captures the spiritual value of our attention in human relationships with this metaphor:
A canary says, ‘Just be with me!’ A canary never really notices who gives it food or water. It doesn’t care what you say to it and it certainly does not need to be touched. A canary is happiest when you sit and listen carefully to its song. And a canary that is ignored will die. Not from lack of food, but from a lack of love and attention.
Attention may increase bottom lines, but it is also life-sustaining, even life-giving.
Consider the possibility that your undivided attention, even for a few minutes, might save a life by helping a person reconsider their belief that nobody cares.
Consider the fact that your undivided attention has the power to shape the destiny of a child. That child may in turn go on to shape the future in ways never imagined.
Consider that your undivided attention can produce relationships that are deeply satisfying and fulfilling.
How will you choose to use this incredible resource you own?
Let it be a gift to those people in your life who are most in need of your undivided attention.
Forgive me for not having paid attention to this post! I’m trying to catch up on ones I’ve missed. This one struck a little something in me, called, regret… When I think back through the years, on all the times I neglected to give my attention to another, it saddens me. I can think of so many times when I failed to pay attention because I had other “more important” things on my mind. Whether it be to keep in touch (more frequently) with a dear high school friend or just to stop and pet a forlorn looking pup at the shelter. Or even more poignant, remembering all the times I “blew off” my mother with half-listening, or eye rolling on the other end of the phone… We can’t get back those moments, but we can change our attentiveness in today’s moments, and the moments in the future. Thank you for reminding me about the importance of undivided attention.