Pay attention!
I bet you have been told this a few times in your life!
Growing up, I’m sure you can remember how exasperated your parents could become.
Of course, it is not a command you hear once you are an adult, at least not directly.
What can you do when your attention is constantly wavering and preventing you from being more productive?
Though you are less likely to be told to pay attention, you still hear it, but it happens inside your own head.
This happens when your mind gets tangled up with something outside of what you need to think about and do.
You are surrounded by all kinds of stimuli.
It is easy to get diverted from what you should ideally be doing.
Once fixated it can be tough making a voluntary escape.
Some of the time we actively invite distraction if something is too challenging, but it doesn’t help.
Remember your mission:
Gain attention, get in rapport, and build trust.
Think growth!
Think gaining attention!
What can you do to reduce the amount of time, precious time, caused by being distracted too easily?
Once you are distracted you may not notice what is important.
This is the way a magician performs his tricks.
Many people believe that if there is an opportunity staring at them they will see it and go get it.
But will they?
Well, if they are not paying attention it is unlikely to happen.
The truth is simple:
You have to find a way, a method to direct your own attention.
If an opportunity does come along and you are not paying attention you may miss something that could change your life, so it is important to have some kind of method to scale back distractions.
The opposite can be true; you may miss an opportunity if you are totally focused on what you is doing!
However, your responsibility is to focus your mind so you can think and deal with your priorities.
You should be able to disengage and reengage.
Controlling your attention is the objective.
Try these five ways to overcome distractions:
1. Take a regular break for 5 minutes after working solidly for 30 minutes. Get up and walk about.
2. Breathe the distraction out, just relax, take a deep breath and slowly exhale imagining the distraction disappearing as you breathe out.
3. Imagine emptying your mind of the distraction with a vacuum cleaner.
4. Imagine writing the distraction on a blackboard with chalk. Now, wipe it clean.
5. Imagine collecting up all of the distractions and place them in your hand. Now, crush together and throw them away.