Val Haderlie, Abundance Coach | Empowering Successful Entrepreneurs

I laughed right out loud when I opened a recent magazine to an article entitled “May I Have My Attention, Please?” As I skimmed the text, I realized that in some respects author Katy Read’s description of “information overload” and its resulting loss of focus has probably applied to most of us at times, no matter what our age.

In today’s technological world, there are stimuli coming at us from all directions, Undoubtedly, the biggest culprit is the internet which is now with us every place we have our Blackberry. To be “with it” as far as technology is concerned, there is so much to learn, so much to do, so much to absorb that we multi-task but never quite finish any of our projects. (Now how many browser tabs open at once on your computer is too many?) When we are rushing around, hour after hour, day after day, paying only partial attention, the parts of our brains required for focusing actually begin to atrophy and our working memory lessens.

No matter what you may have thought before, here’s a news flash for those of you who insist on intellectual multi-tasking: The brain can only think of one thing at a time! Think of the inefficiency of asking your brain to flit from project to project without giving it the opportunity to center, focus, and concentrate on the task of creating what you have asked it to create or solving the problem you have put in front of it! No wonder the incidence of adult attention deficit disorder is on the rise! And we’re causing the epidemic ourselves!

The good news is that the ability to focus our thoughts is a faculty that can be stimulated, increased, and enhanced through exercising, (especially exercising our willpower to unplug from the TV and the internet.) Other beneficial brain exercises include reading, meditating, playing a musical instrument, engaging in a game of chess, or solving math story problems.

Our brain was designed with the capability to choose our thoughts. Thousands of thoughts pop onto the stage of our mind every day, but we can decide which thoughts we dwell on. The choice however is severely complicated when we split our attention between more than one idea; our thoughts then begin to behave like ping pong balls bouncing around without resting on a specific thought. Honing in on one task, one thought, one idea allows the brain to dismiss the thousands of others vying for our attention.

And what about listening? Have you ever been guilty of “half-listening,” acting like your listening while you are thinking of something totally different than the thoughts behind what the speaker is saying? Focused listening is one of the most valued gifts you can offer to those around you. Looking at the person who is speaking to you, thinking ONLY about the thoughts being verbalized by that person, and reflecting back to the speaker what you have heard are components of the talent of focused listening.

An extremely pleasurable exercise to improve your ability to concentrate is to go into your yard, a park, or a forest, sit down and close your eyes, and listen. Just listen. Hear the cars whizzing by, hear the children playing next door, hear the birds singing or the crickets chirping, hear the airplane flying above you, hear the carpenter’s hammer down the street, hear the gurgling of your neighbor’s fountain. Listen intensely for every sound that surrounds you; don’t miss identifying a single one. Allowing ourselves to be constantly pummeled by information reduces our ability to choose to focus on our priorities, our passions and the significant people in our lives. We actually begin to lose the skills required to concentrate and we begin forfeiting our chances to invest our attention, energy and focus in the things that matter most to us.   Selecting which sources of input we accept into our lives is our choice. We must choose wisely.

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Make yours an abundant day!