Many people are surprisingly convinced that attention cannot be controlled, and that what their attention turned out to be directed to is the only possible reality. «What else can you see here?» They are sure that the environment (internal or external) forces them to focus on certain subjects in the way they do it. They deny their own participation in the choice of what to switch attention to, which stimuli to select from their entire kaleidoscope, and argue that it is the stimuli that force them to look and focus in a certain way.
An anxious client automatically focuses on their fears as soon as they feel the slightest excitement. The depressed client is convinced that once she feels sad and hopeless, she will not be able to switch to anything else …
This is not entirely true. If attention is not controlled, it will control us, but if we train ourselves to control our own attention, we can do a lot.
Actually, the preparation of a child for school begins with the fact that children are taught to be attentive, not to be distracted, to turn their attention not to what suddenly interested them, but to the words of the teacher and what is written in the textbook. A good school teaches children to manage their attention — thanks to the school for that!
The first step to managing life and actions is the ability to manage your own attention. By managing our own and other people’s attention, we can make important and interesting what we need. Okay, but what exactly to manage? Traditionally, attention has the following properties (characteristics): concentration, stability, volume, direction, switchability, and the ability to parallel processes. These properties develop in children in the process of life, it makes sense to develop these qualities of their attention for anyone who wants to live more meaningfully and productively. See →
Attention management as a way of self-motivation
Attention is energy, and directing it in the right direction, you start the processes you need.
Start with yourself. What you want to be important to you — let it be, if possible, in your field of vision. From the field of vision it will fall into the field of attention — remember, think about it, maybe you will start doing something necessary in this direction. The most important thing is to have it in front of your nose.
You may not consider yourself a candy and Pepsi lover, but if you have a bottle of Pepsi and candy on your table, you can be sure that you will pour yourself a drink and stop by in the very near future. It just happens because it gets your attention.
If you want to actively engage in sports, then it is better to place sports equipment on the line of attention: the dumbbells in the room should not be neatly removed from the eyes, but in plain sight.
Managing other people’s attention
By managing the attention of other people, you get the opportunity to influence their behavior. What do moms use when a small child reaches for what it shouldn’t? They distract from this and try to draw attention to something else, no less interesting. And this works not only for small children: direct the person’s attention to what you want to interest him, and distract him from what he does not need to see. Women take advantage of this by attracting the attention of men to themselves.