357 - The Investment of Attention

What do you invest your attention in? Are you investing in things that enrich your life or keep you distracted? Today I want to talk about the importance of attention and what it’s costing you.

“You live as if you were destined to live forever, no thought of your frailty ever enters your head, of how much time has already gone by you take no heed. You squander time as if you drew from a full and abundant supply, though all the while that day which you bestow on some person or thing is perhaps your last.”

—Seneca

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Transcript

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What do you invest your attention in? Are you investing things that enrich your life or keep you distracted? Today I want to talk about the importance of attention and what it might be costing you. Hello, friends. My name is Erick Cloward, and welcome to the Stoic Coffee Break. The Stoic Coffee Break is a weekly podcast where I take aspects of stoicism and do my best to break them down to their most important points. I share my thoughts on philosophy and I pull from ancient and modern wisdom and basically get my, anything I can get my hands on to help you to think better. Because I believe if you can think better, you can live better. This week's episode is called the Investment of Attention. You Live as if you are destined to live forever. No thought of your frailty. Enter your head of how much time has already gone by. You take no heed. You squander time as if you drew from a full and abundant supply. Though all of the while that day, which you bestow on some person or thing is perhaps your last Seneca. We're often told that we live in the attention economy now. When I first, when I first heard this term a few years ago, it seemed a little weird to me. I thought, how is attention something economic? How do you make money off of attention? Well, now that a few years have passed, it's become very clear that attention is one of the most valuable things that we have, and companies have made billions off of it. Social media platforms are the ob most obvious case of monetizing our attention. But so our streaming platforms and video games as well as plenty of other online things that are all vying for our attention and our attention is important. I mean, think about how we express it. We pay attention. So if your attention is worse so much, it begs the question, what are you spending your attention on and what is it costing you? So one of the things in life that we all know is that life is short. And one thing that we can never replace in life is time. We have a finite time on this planet and we often complain about not having enough time. And even in Seneca's time, this was a common refrain. The majority of Mortal Pius complain bitterly of the spitefulness of nature. Because we are born for such a brief span of life. Because even this space that has been granted to us rushes by so speedily and so swiftly that all save a very few find life at an end just when they are getting ready to live. So how much of your life is spent just getting ready to do something? How many dreams and plans have you put off for someday? When you realize how short life is, you understand that you can replace money, you can replace possessions, but time is something that can never be replaced. So it's important to pay attention to the things that really matter, and all the time spent on distractions and frivolous things can never be reclaimed. The next thing I want to talk about is the importance of what we pay attention to impacts who we are. STOs often talked about the idea of impressions, meaning the things that we're exposed to, including our own thoughts, and they advised that we need to be conscious of and choose those things which improve us. Epic said, you become what you give your attention to. If you yourself don't choose what thoughts and images you expose yourself to someone else will. Now, one of the things that I really appreciated about my father was that he loved to read all kinds of books about science. He was fascinated with subjects like astronomy and physics and chaos theory. I remember having long discussions about stars and planets and the nature of the cosmos, and those early discussions really had a big impact on me. And to be honest, one of my guilty pleasures is watching physics and astronomy videos on YouTube. Now on the flip side, I've seen where people spend so much time consuming media focused on hate and outrage, and that changes them into bitter and angry people. There are others who spend so much time online watching all of the things that are wrong with the world, that their impression is that the world is simply falling apart and it feeds their anxiety leading to unhappiness and stress. So an interesting example of the importance of what you give your attention to. Comes from an interview from Brene Brown that I stumbled across the other day. And in it she was talking about how she often consults with CEOs who are in charge of some of the largest tech companies in the world. And one of the things that was so fascinating about this is they talked about how these tech CEOs don't let their children use the technology that their companies push on the rest of us. I mean, even Steve's jobs, Steve Jobs kids didn't have iPads in the home. Instead, they spent time talking about philosophy and art and history and reading books rather than getting stuck on social media. And as a side note, I think it's interesting that they know how addictive this tech is. So much so that they don't let their kids use it, but they foisted it on the rest of us. Now, they understood that critical thinking and developing your mind was far more crucial to being successful and being a happy person than being a passive consumer of media. I. The next idea I want to talk about is that attention is presence. Now, as humans, we really can only focus on one thing at a time. I know we like to think that we can multitask, eh, but it's been shown through study after study that this is simply not true. So when we pay attention to something, we are excluding other things. This is why when we're driving, getting distracted by something can mean the difference between life or death. I mean, that's why texting and driving is such, it's outlawed in so many states because it is such a danger. But the cost that most of us don't consider is how much these distractions take us outta the present moment. When we're not present, we're missing out on life happening in front of us, we're ignoring chances for connecting with others or just appreciating the moment. I can't tell you how many times I've been at a restaurant and I've seen a whole family sitting at the table and every single one of them is on their phones and not talking to each other. And to me this seems like such a waste. I mean, why even go out to eat as a family if all you're going to do is be sitting there on your phones now? Now part of being human is that we're hardwired to pay attention to negative things. This is because as humans, it's been more important to pay attention to the things that could cause us harm. If we think of early humans coming across something that would feed you for a week like a deer or a buffalo, was great, but more important was making sure that a lion or a tiger wasn't sneaking up behind you and bringing your life to an end because of this inherent trait, we're always on the lookout for negative things far more than we are for positive things. Now think of how many times you have to remind yourself to be grateful. Think about the fact that we often have to create a gratitude practice because this is not usually something that comes naturally to us. Now, thinking of it as a parent, we probably spend more time telling our kids what not to do in order to keep them safe than we do, encouraging them and pointing out the great things in life. Now, social media platforms exploit this part of human nature. It's been shown in study after study that we stay more engaged and online. When we share things that cause outrage, it taps into that deeper part of us that is always on the lookout for danger. Now, in my podcast community, we had a discussion about attention a while back, and so I wanna credit Chuck for bringing this idea to my attention. So another thing that I think is probably less talked about, about why we get distracted by our pleasure dispensers in our pockets. Is that it's easy. It's so easy to scroll to another video, another post, another show to watch. But interacting with people and practicing an instrument, painting art, or writing a poem, those are all things that take effort. Our minds are always looking for the path of least resistance, and while the pleasure of developing ourselves and connecting with other people is far more rewarding, it takes more effort. But the thing is, is that when you spend time on things that are just attention sucking, then you miss out on opportunities to accomplish other things. When you spend hours on your phone or video games, those hours are not spent on learning or achieving something greater. These things are a cost with no return on investment, for example, you could have spent those hours becoming a better musician or a better writer. That time could have been spent on building a business or time with family, or learning a new trade or volunteering in your community and making the place you live better. And when I thought about this, it makes me wonder how much potential has been squandered because of all of the distractions and easy pleasures that are available to us. How many works of art or businesses have not been created because of attention being diverted to mindless distractions. When we choose comfort and pleasure over creation and facing challenges, we not only lose that experience for ourselves and that growth, but we also lose what could have been brought to the world. Another aspect to consider is that when you're distracted, it's harder to make thoughtful and well recent decisions. It takes time and effort to make good choices when faced with a challenging situation. If you're always in the habit of taking the easy path, you're more likely to make choices that avoid challenges. And this is why the stoics talk about the importance of taking on challenging things. When we avoid them, we don't develop ourselves. The hard things aren't in the way, and they aren't just obstacles on the path. They are the path. This is what Marcus Radius meant when he, when he wrote the impediment to action Advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way. Those hard things, the things that we avoid are exactly what we need to get better at them. And that improvement, that development of skill and character are what make life worth. Living. Life is meant to have pleasures, but when life becomes only about seeking pleasure and avoiding difficulties, we lose out on the richness of our existence. I mean, think about it this way. On your deathbed, are you going to be re, are you going to regret spending time with your family or becoming a better artist or a cello player? Or will you regret all the time that you wasted on social media or video games or Netflix? Now this is not to demean any of those. We all need some pleasure and fun in our lives, but those are all costs of time that you could have invested into greater things. So let's talk about investing your attention. So Seneca reminds us, it's not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it. Life is long enough and it has been given insufficient, generous measure to allow the accomplishment of the very greatest things if the whole of it is well invested. So what are you investing your attention into? What is your lack of attention costing you, and how can we get better about where we spend our attention? So before we can think about where we wanna spend our attention, we need to be aware of where we are spending our attention. And I can't tell you how many times I've started working on something only to get distracted by social media and find another hour or two has passed by and I've gotten nothing done on my original task. So one option is that we can keep a time lock. This is not planning out your day, but it is tracking what you actually do. Just like keeping a food log when you want to change your diet. Keeping a time log is so that you can develop awareness of where your time is actually spent, because you can't change what you can't see. So once you're more aware of where your time is going, work on creating actual plans for your time. So since I work for myself, I've had to become a lot better at managing my own time. When I worked for other companies, they set the tasks that I needed to get done for the day. So this has been one of the harder things for me to learn, and it's a skill that I've really had to strengthen, and honestly, it's something I still struggle with pretty much every day. Now, whether you have a basic to-do list on a Post-it note, or you're scheduling things in your calendar, or you have a more complicated system, such as notion. Just use whatever works for you. The point is that you have some idea of what you want to accomplish in the day so that you have something that you're actually working towards. And this makes it less likely that you'll get distracted because when you do get distracted, you'll have something to actually direct your attention back to. And honestly, you can spend, you can plan time where you choose to be distracted. If breaking the social media addiction is hard. Don't get rid of it all at once. Just set a few times throughout the day where you have a break and you scroll for 15 or 10 minutes. The point is, is that when you have dedicated time focused to dedicated tasks, it's easier to get back to those tasks when you do actually get distracted. Probably the most powerful tool that you can do to limit distractions is to have a deeper purpose in life. If you have a deeper purpose, then that becomes what your focus is drawn to. You do things and avoid things that don't line up with your purpose. For example, if you have young children, then maybe your focus at this time is on strengthening family ties and helping your children learn and develop. Maybe you're an entrepreneur, building a build a business, then creating a sustainable company could be your deeper. If you're a budding artist, finding ways to create and share your work is your deeper purpose. Whatever your deeper purpose is at this time in your life, having it clearly defined is helpful for reducing your distractions. And why is that? It's the lens through which everything is seen through which make choices easier, and anything that doesn't support or is detrimental to that purpose is not even considered. Distractions are discarded because those things that take you away from your deeper purpose are things that you get rid of. Having a deeper purpose helps you make choices that might be harder in the moment, but have better long-term outcomes. I think Seneca was ENT when he wrote. Men are tight-fisted in keeping control of their fortunes, but when it comes to the matter of wasting time, they are positively extravagant In the one area where there is honor in being miserly, we should protect our time as if it were a treasure. Because it is. A good example of this is Kobe Bryant and Kobe's goal in life was to become the best basketball player that he could become. Everything he did from his diet to his workout regimen and even his sleep was all about that one goal. Anything that distracted from that was minimized or discarded. He protected his time and attention as if it were gold. You don't win five championships, spending hours, doom scrolling. When you have that deeper purpose, it's a filter for anything that doesn't move you in the direction you want to go. Choices become clearer. You simply ask yourself, is this serving my deeper purpose? So in conclusion, I want you to take some time this week and ask yourself a few questions. Ask yourself, where am I investing my attention? If the days are flying by and you're not accomplishing the things that you want, develop a distraction awareness habit. Log your time and notice where there are gaps spent on distractions. Then work on planning your time for your days. Next question is, where is it most important to invest my time and attention? Clearly defining the things that are important to you, such as family and friends, gives you a lens to filter everything you do. Having a deeper purpose gives you focus for the actions in your daily life. Last, ask yourself, what is this costing me? When you see giving your attention to something as something that you're actually paying for, you can decide if it's a cost that you want to pay, invest your time in things that expand your mind and improve your thinking and help you maybe help you learn a new skill, or even just appreciate things like art and music. What it comes down to is that you need to invest your attention in yourself.'cause you're worth it. And that's the end of this week's stoic Coffee break. As always, be kind to others, be kind to yourself, and thanks for listening. Also, if you haven't picked up my book, stoicism 1 0 1, I would really appreciate if you would, you can find more about it at my website at Stoic Coffee. Also, I know I just spent the last episode talking about the horrors of social media, but if you're gonna be on there, you may as well watch something good. You can subscribe to my social media channels, which is on Instagram and Threads at Stoic Coffee and YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn at Stoic Coffee, all one word. Thanks again for listening.