The most expensive commodity on earth (I)

Attention is the most sought after commodity on the earth. Think about it – everybody is seeking your attention. The advertiser wants your attention, your spouse, your children, employer, church, your friends …everybody wants your attention. Everybody wants a piece and, if possible all your attention at any given  time.

The problem with attention is that it is a limited resource. It is not possible to give everybody the attention they require every time and it is not possible to give attention to everything that requires attention. Attention has to be prioritized. You need to decide where and who you give your attention to.

“Attention is a limited resource, so pay attention to where you pay attention.” Howard Rheingold

Attention must be give to what is important.

“The quality of one’s life depends on the quality of attention. Whatever you pay attention to will grow more important in your life.” Deepak Chopra

You need to understand what attention involves to really pay attention.

“Think of attention as a highlighter. As you read through a section of text in a book, the highlighted section stands out, causing you to focus your interest in that area. It’s not just about centering your focus on one particular thing; it also involves ignoring a great deal of competing information and stimuli. Attention allows you to “tune out” information, sensations, and perceptions that are not relevant at the moment and instead focus your energy on the information that’s important.”​ Kendra Cherry

Attention is a skill to be developed as there are many kinds of attention.

There are many different types of attention that people engage in. Some of these include:

“Sustained Attention- This form of attention, also known as concentration, is the ability to focus on one thing for a continuous period. During this time, people keep their focus on the task at hand and continue to engage in a behavior until the task is complete or a certain period of time has elapsed.

Alternating Attention- This type of attention involves multitasking or effortlessly shifting attention between two or more things with different cognitive demands.

It’s not about focusing on more than one thing at the same time, but about stopping attending to one thing and then switching to the next task.

Selective Attention-Since attention is a limited resource, we have to be selective about what we decide to focus on. Not only must we focus our attention on a specific item in our environment, but we must also filter out an enormous number of other items.

Selective attention involves being able to choose and selectively attend to certain stimuli in the environment while at the same time tuning other things out. For example, you might selectively attend to a book you are reading while tuning out the sound of your next-door neighbor›s car alarm going off.

TO BE CONTINUED

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