I’ve been issuing a Free Personal Development Ezine for the past few years – each Monday and Wednesday morning, articles and short videos – and from the feedback I’ve been getting I’ve no choice but to believe that there’s too many people out there who moan about their existence, but who won’t take the appropriate steps to change. Most people are unhappy in what they do for a living but put up with it as a necessity. People become numb from the routine of everyday living. Many people are unhappy in their relationships. And, of course, most people are dissatisfied with themselves – their shape, weight, lack of assertiveness, low self-esteem, eating habits, lack of fitness… But what all these people – and there’s a whopping great chance that this includes you – don’t realize is that every single aspect of their lives would alter beyond recognition if they simply pulled themselves together and paid attention.
Yeah, you heard me – just like your teacher told you in nursery school! Psychology confirms that your happiness and success is correlated to how well you pay attention. That sounds weird – but just think about it. Successful people know how to focus – and focus is just a fancy word for paying attention. Presence is one of the main hallmarks of success – successful people have presence – and that just means that they are more attentive to the here and now. Or, in simple English, successful people make the effort to turn up to their own lives! They attend to the here and now – they invest their full attention.
Contrast this with your average Joe who, research concludes, is missing in action! The normal mind is, to quote an Irish expression, ‘not all there’ – we’re all over the place. Your normal mind is paying attention to your ‘stored knowledge’ – what you learned in your formative years. Your normal mind has no interest in what’s actually happening now and that’s why ordinary people are firmly strapped onto life’s sorry-go-round!
You need to pay attention, focus, get your head in the game. And, in actual fact, it doesn’t really matter if you don’t know what you want out in your life (who is?!) – what’s most important is that you pay attention to what’s going on right now – you never know what opportunities you might spot (which you caannot spot if you’re not all there!). Focus is about the here and now. Focus is about doing what you’re supposed to be doing without focusing on your self-sabotaging beliefs (from ‘I can’t stand my job’ to ‘I dislike me’). Paying attention is down to being present, having presence and going with life’s flow.
Hasn’t it occurred to you that all the wonderful things that have ever taken place in your life (yeah, even if you’re a sad person, something good happened somewhere along the way) happened in a spontaneous manner? You can turn back on life’s spontaneity, all you’ve got to do is turn up to your own life – in this present moment – focus on what’s actually going on, not what your weird, normal mind would have you believe is happeing.
