Inwards, onwards & upwards
A journal of invitations, ideas & inspiration to keep you moving from where you are to where you want to be
Be astonished
Welcome to my June newsletter.
This month’s journal entry is a little longer than usual. Ironically, it’s about how precious our attention is….
So I hope as you pay yours to these 1,000 words over the next 4 minutes, they offer you a worthy return on your investment.
Attention is precious
You give away your age with your reaction to these names:
Dynamo.
David Blaine.
David Copperfield.
Paul Daniels.
And Debbie McGee of course.
As with musicians, every generation has its magician.
But what do magicians know that the rest of us don’t?
Don’t ignore people
You’ve got 100s of unread emails, I know. You’re interrupted every five minutes with minor problems, I know. You’re managing geographically and generationally fragmented teams across myriad communication platforms, I know.
Sometimes your whole day is comprised of other people’s to do lists and you finish feeling emotionally spent without any of the rewards of productivity.
I know, because I’ve been there.
But ignoring people isn’t the solution.
Try this instead.
Expert listening
When we pay someone attention incredible things can happen.
But to pay attention properly requires mastery of this one skill: listening.
There are five levels of listening: novice, amateur, semi-pro, pro and expert.
When you become an expert listener, you’ll know what it finally feels like to actually hear.
Don’t get distracted
It’s one thing fending off external demands on our attention, but how do we stop distracting ourselves?
Addicted may not be too strong an adjective to describe our relationship with our diversions.
We delude ourselves if we think we can defeat self-distraction with willpower alone.
But get radical with your interventions and in time, new habits will emerge.
The single most valuable asset you have is your attention
How intentionally do you spend it?
Spend, because it is a scarce resource.
We have about 4,000 weeks of it each.
Some say that human attention is the only scarcity we have in this world.
CATEGORIES
About Coaching | Newsletters | Aspiring Artistic Directors | How to Begin | The Power of Perception | Unleashing Creative Thinking | Working with Other People | Better Decision-Making | How to be More Resilient | The Importance of Attention | Be More Present | Learning From The Past | Thinking Long-Term | Navigating Change | How to Persevere