Trying to Pay Attention...

“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”

~Herbert Simon

As always, I came across today’s quote during my reading this week and it got me thinking.

We are officially in an age where there is almost too much information. There are dozens of different diets you can follow, all consisting of dozens more different meal plans you can choose from. There are new exercise fads popping up all the time that claim to give you the results you have always wanted. There are millions of posts of exercises you should be doing to cure this, stop that, and fix everything.

It’s really why I don’t spend a ton of time online or scrolling. There is just too much to consume and with too much there is no true attention given to anything.

I will often have a client ask if they should be doing xyz to fix xyz. I don’t want to discourage anyone from trying something out but I have to ask did you commit a fair amount of time to the last thing to see if it actually worked before adding this thing.

I personally have someone who I invest in every month to send me programming so I don’t start “getting creative” with my workouts. Yes, even me the professional, likes to wonder in the forest sometimes.

If you find yourself jumping from one thing to the next (in any part of life) try implementing a few things…

1. Open up your phone and go to settings and screen time and see all your app & website activity. It might be alarming at first to see how much time you are spending on things like social media, news sites, games, etc but it will give you tangible evidence of where you are investing your attention.

2. Commit to limiting how much time you spend mindlessly scrolling/reading. Not because what you are looking at isn’t maybe interesting or even informational, but because consuming all the information reduces your ability to pay attention.

3. Commit to an exercise program and stay with it for at least 8 weeks. Yes, it may get a little boring and tedious but it’s the only way you will find what works for you and what does not.

4. Design an eating program that is realistic and sustainable. Same as above, commit to 8 weeks. On a side not: trying to eat perfectly everyday is neither realistic nor sustainable. Instead be honest that you want to eat out once a week or try new recipes often. Your results will come from the 80% consistent effort not the 20% letting your hair down occasionally.

5. Work on only 1-3 goals at time. Trying to juggle a million things, leaves little time and attention to actually move the ball forward in any one area.

6. Lastly create time, space, and intentional energy to just relaxing and mindlessly doing what you want. Every Saturday night I eat what ever I want. Every Sunday I have time where I can just mindlessly scroll on social media. I like to try and bake a rich, delectable dessert once a month. Because these are all intentional I get to truly enjoy them and not wonder if I should be doing something more productive or eating something better.

As you go through this next week find ways you can limit the noise around you. There is a wonderful peace with quieting your mind!

Onward and upward my friends!

Exercise of the week!