A drug dealer doesn’t talk about how good cocaine is, they give out free lines. The latter makes a frequent flyer.
That’s an analogy I used recently. I share it here only to show you that with a single blurb I can take your attention to drugs.
All day long we have things that grab our attention. E-mails, phone calls, sirens, crashing noises, barking dogs, etc.
And that’s a good thing when something bad happens and you need your attention refocused. And that’s why attention = importance. It can mean the difference between life and death.
But for the most part the distractions are unwarranted. And nonetheless divert attention perhaps permanently from what does matter to you.
Facebook is a great example of this. One minute you’re nonchalantly scrolling through posts and the next you’re filled with apoplectic rage.
So much for whatever it was you needed to get done.
This subject is absolutely fascinating to me because I watch myself get distracted every day by things that aren’t that important. And it’s fun to catch myself with my hand in the cookie jar.
It’s incredibly hard to drop the cookie. I feel like I’m telling a child no–there’s a bit of psychological pain in letting go.
See if you can catch yourself in the act, that’s a first step to building intuition to not let so many distractions keep your attention if they truly don’t matter.