The Attention Factor: The Secret to Success
Our capacity of attention determines our performance to make tasks. If it’s insufficient, we will fail. Instead, if it’s strong, we can stand out. There is a hidden link between attention and success. By putting attention to certain things, we notice some behaviors and thoughts of ourselves and our surroundings. Bringing us some advantage from others that live their life on “autopilot”.
Throughout our life, we need attention for all kinds of things. As children, we learn to focus on some stimuli while ignoring others of less importance. Sometimes we are able to easily remember a conversation that we have had but we are not able to remember other aspects, say, secondary: the place, the clothes of our interlocutor, if it was cold or hot … Another example would be when we should be able to be focused on something for a long time, even if it is boring, such as a talk in class or at work.
One of the vital abilities that have as root the attention is self-knowledge. It’s the knowledge that a person acquires about him/herself. It encourages self-management. Another ability is empathy. Empathy is the capacity to recognize feelings, thoughts, and emotions from other people. Both of them are the foundations of emotional intelligence.
Another interesting fact to say is that attention can be directed. If it is to the inside we reinforce self-awareness and self-knowledge. This type of attention it’s synchronized with intuition. If it is to other people is empathy, which improves our relationships with others. And if it's to our surroundings we reinforce environmental awareness, which lets us take care of our world and travel to many places. Ideally, we have to strengthen all three facets in order to have a satisfactory life.
A Vital Muscle
Attention works similarly to any muscle. When you go to the gym and train your body, you go every week in order to strengthen and grow some parts of your body. Similarly, if we use the attention for little periods of time, it would atrophies. Instead, If we use it every day, it would develop.
Attention gives us a way to see the world and be aware of it. It also provides a voluntary order of what we feel and what we think.
“Your focus determines your reality” — Yoda (Star Wars)
Not only leading people can benefit from it. Al the people can train the attention factor in the three modalities to help us find a balance in our life. This is in order to let us live a happy and productive life. The way we use our attention determines what we see.
Attention Functions
Etymologically speaking, the word attention comes from Latin attendere, which means “go to”. Attention is a cognitive function that allows focusing the interest and consciousness of the person towards a stimulus or event (internal or external). Attention precedes perception and action, making a selection among all the perceptual stimuli present at a specific moment. It connects us with the world, delineates and defines our experience.
Some functions of attention are:
- Control over cognitive ability.
- Activation of the organism in planned situations.
- Prevention of excessive information loading.
- Structuring of human activity. Facilitates conscious motivation towards skill development and determines the direction of attention (motivation)
- Ensure adequate perceptual processing of the most relevant sensory stimuli.
Why attention is so important?
For a very simple reason:
If attention is not paid properly, the information that reaches the mind can be distorted or incomplete, making it very difficult to carry out the rest of the cognitive activities.
For example: if a person has to perform a task but does not pay much attention to the instructions to do it, it will surely cost him/her much more than if he/she attends correctly since he/she will lack information to know how he should do it. In summary, we need to strengthen our attention to be more aware of ourselves and our surroundings to accomplish success.
