How “humane” is this elephant?
Paying Attention
How many ways do we have of saying this?
Stay in present time.
Concentrate.
Ignore distractions.
Pay attention.
Stop dwelling on the past.
Focus.
Don’t get pulled off purpose.
Stay the path.
Discipline yourself.
And how many mental techniques and administrative tools have we developed to helps us remember and do the above?
And why is all the above it necessary?
Quite simply it is because your attention is pulled out of present time and into the past by losses and moments of pain and unconsciousness.
For instance, have you ever had a disagreement or argument with a person and walked away without resolving it, continuing to stew on it?
Ever had someone say something unkind or unpleasant to you and thought about it on and off for days?
Let’s look at how this plays out in real life. Let’s say arbitrarily that you have 1000 units of attention you can apply to thinking or any other task you are doing, like driving your car.
Let’s assume that when you have an argument, disagreement or loss you lose just one attention unit from your potential maximum that you have to focus on things. Just one in a thousand. Not a lot. Just .1 of a percent.
After you look over your past life you might be forgiven for wondering how you can still function at all, considering you’ve most likely had more than 1,000 times in your life when you have hit your arm, bumped your shin, taken the skin off your knee, been invalidated by another in school, jilted romantically, not gotten the exam result, job or promotion you expected, been rebuffed by a partner… …the list of ways you can experience loss is almost endless!
In fact, one researcher estimated that the average person has only 30% of their attention units still in present time. That 70% of the average person’s attention units were encysted or trapped in past losses.
That’s a pretty sobering thought, when you consider the average person drives around with only 30% of their available attention units available to them. On the same roads as you and me!
Sort of goes some way to explaining some of the things you see when out and about. That and a lack or personal ethics. But that’s another story for another day.
You may have even seen somebody do something pretty wild and wondered to yourself, or even out loud, “What in heaven’s name does he think he’s doing? Where IS he?” Meaning he is not here, accurately observing his environment as it is in present time.
Truth is, he actually IS someWHEN else as well as someWHERE else. Too many of his attention units are not here in present time, where he is now. They are stuck back in time and at a place where he experienced a loss.
This all seems pretty grim until you learn there is a way you can recover these attention units from the past and place them at your disposal in present time.
In a simple exercise, done at home, in your own time and at your own pace that takes just 15 minutes a day. From a book that costs less than $50 including postage.
Contact me if you would like to naturally and comfortably have more attention units in present time.
Simon lets Max Fox sing for him from audience and scores Golden Buzzer
Great song, great voice and a bit of courage land a great result!
Incredible Slipcasting Ideas & Crafts
Some creative ideas for you or the next school holidays…
Watch Your Thoughts
Loyalty Is Rare
His Last Friday – Or Your Opportunity To Make A Difference?
Quote of the Day
“I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.” Khalil Gibran – Writer (1883 – 1931)
Michael J Fox does Johnny B Goode
When I filmed the “Johnny B. Goode” scene, I was lucky enough to have a great teacher who taught me how to play the guitar. I told Bob (Zemeckis, the director), “When I do this scene, I’ll actually play the guitar so you can sync the visuals with the finger movements. Feel free to cut to the hands whenever you want.” Having said that, I immediately felt the pressure to make it incredibly good. So, I turned to Paul Hanson, my guitar teacher.
I worked on that piece for about a month, and in the meantime, I worked with a coach who was Madonna’s choreographer. I told him, “I dance like a duck. I can’t dance. But what I’d like to do is bring together all the traits, mannerisms, and quirks of my favorite guitarists — Pete Townshend’s windmill, Jimi Hendrix’s guitar behind the back, and Chuck Berry’s duck walk.” We worked on all of that and put it together. Those are the moments when you can’t think, “I’m tired” or “I feel the pressure to get it right.” You just do it and have fun!
Michael J. Fox
(Tom: This is what a truly great professional does behind/before every performance or action. Imagine what the world would be like if we all did that before everything we do.)
You Have Genuine Super Powers!
It is interesting how action movies display superhuman strength, x-ray vision, the ability to fly, to run faster than the eye can see as super human abilities.
While these action flicks satisfy the urge to have more drama in our lives, is their portrayal of those fictional superhuman characteristics a distraction, a misdirection, an altered importance that takes our eye off where we should be looking?
When I look around me, what I see observe is that most people do not have any idea of their basic purpose in life, spend more time planning an annual vacation than they do planning their life, pay scant attention to regular exercise or an optimum diet and are spending more time on distractions than on living a fully real and authentic life.
Henry David Thoreau said, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
This is sad.
What if there were a simple, effective way to alter this situation?
What if there were a way to move a person from living a life of quiet desperation to a level of calm, satisfied competence?
It has been noted by more than one person that you get that on which you put your attention. Well, let me suggest you put your attention on some abilities I see broadly lacking that if you put your attention on and mastered, would make you appear to others like a super hero masquerading as an ordinary human being in street clothes!
What are these abilities?
Being fully present in the here and now without having your attention dragged back in time or elsewhere is a super power.
Confront and integrity (the willingness and ability to see what is really there, not what you think is there or what you want to be there or what you are told is there) are super powers.
Having the confidence to clearly communicate what you wish to is a super power.
The ability to learn and skillfully apply that newly acquired data is a super power.
Competence, the ability to start, continue and fully complete a task without distraction or error, quickly, efficiently and effectively, is a superpower.
Loyalty is a super power.
Honesty and truthfulness (the ability to say what you think should be said despite potential negative consequences) is a super power.
Persistence is a super power.
Consistency is a super power.
Responsibility is a super power.
Self-discipline is a super power.
The ability to envisage a future goal, to plan the steps necessary to attain it, then to perform them in sequence until you attain the desired result is a super power.
The ability to acknowledge something you did was wrong, to rectify it and thereafter change your operating basis is a super power.
These are not fictional powers, they are genuine, real super powers for they enable production at a much higher level and the enjoyment of a far more satisfying life.
If you have read this far then you probably have many or all of the above super powers, to a greater or lessor degree.
Let’s look at what would happen if one by one, you took each of these abilities as something to work on in yourself, and, improve your ability to do it for a week before moving on to the next one.
You would progressively improve your morale, your self-confidence, your happiness, your self-respect and your ability to get things done.
This will set an example to others that some will want to emulate.
Imagine what would happen if enough people did this? If a civilization is the aggregate of the basic building blocks, the individuals in it, what would happen to a civilization if all the individuals in it had the above super powers to a high level?
Tom Grimshaw
P.S. If, while improving your super powers, you hit a brick wall or are not progressing as quickly as you would like, reach out to me.