Attention Power

THE POWER OF DIRECTED ATTENTION

IT DETERMINES WHAT YOU SEE AND FLAVORS ALL ELSE

REPLACED

The Power Of Directed Attention

It Determines What You See And Flavors All Else

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CONTENTS

The law of attention

The law of attraction; the law of detraction

Do what it takes

Two things can't exist in the same space

Extreme care is mandatory

Fully implement it this time!

No tolerance!

Address if necessary, but right away!

Plan ahead, organize

Keep on investing

Tying this down, completing

A few more observations

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ATTENTION! PAY ATTENTION!

(For what you pay attention to will determine your life!)

THE LAW OF ATTENTION

Attention: The focus on a selected object or thought. If you keep your focus on it, it is called concentration.

You are a miner with a helmet light, turning your head and seeing where the light is shining. If it is shining on anything but where you want to go, you are not getting where you want to go (duh!).

A famous comedian (Flip Wilson) used to say: "What you sees is what you gets."

And lots of self-improvement and psychology books and trainers say what you put your attention on increases. So don't put your attention on what you don't want to increase. (Like the Feed The Good Wolf piece in Inputs Determine Outputs.)

Many self-improving individuals already "know" this - but they continue to defy the law! "What you focus on increases!" That's the truth.

If you focus on negative thoughts, you get more of the negative and you miss seeing the positive and/or what's possible and/or good out there.

THE LAW OF ATTRACTION; THE LAW OF DETRACTION

Some people call this part of the "Law Of Attraction", but there is no mystery to it. If you're negative, you'll be looking for negative stuff. If you're positive, you'll be looking for positive stuff. They say that the same type of stuff as you put out is what is "attracted to you".

It is not literally attracted to you, like a magnet, nor does the universe go get it for you. You simply look for what it is you want, if you're focused on it, and your mind works on it, often without your thinking about it consciously. It seems we evolved with a part of our brain that is automatically seeking goals - called the reticular activating system RAS). It seeks out "matches" and thus brings relevant information to our attention.

If you want something, you must thoroughly focus on (pay attention) to the goal and your RAS jumps on the bandwagon to help you get it. Discussed nicely on this goals blog: Make Your Goals Happen or About-Goal-Setting.

DO WHAT IT TAKES

You set what you want and then intend to do what it takes to get it - and you can get almost anything you want (of course, within the Law Of Time and Law Of Learning And Then Doing).

TWO THINGS CAN'T EXIST IN THE SAME SPACE

Notice that you cannot focus your attention on two things at once - the brain cannot operate on two opposite things at once.

I cannot say "I want to be powerful" and still be talking to myself about what a wimp I am because of my mother. If I keep talking about how I am the victim of my mother, then there is more and more power to the basic belief of wimphood - and the "small power" of repeating affirmations can't overcome it.

So it is imperative that you not reinforce the disempowering belief and that you, instead, chip away at it.

If a neuronal pathway in the brain is used very little, it will shrivel and may go away, no longer being "needed" for use by the brain. On the other hand, if you repeatedly use anything it will reinforce a neuronal pathway - you literally are changing the physical structure of the brain - and you are forming new thoughts that come up automatically.

In order to keep on generating the positives, notice that the brain needs reminders

EXTREME CARE IS MANDATORY

Because of the power of language and speaking to yourself is immense, we need to treat it very, very carefully and honor its power - and then use your power to empower it - so that it serves you and your happiness. We can't afford to be at all sloppy or lackadaisical or compromising about it.

FULLY IMPLEMENT IT THIS TIME

Nothing new so far. But the point of this piece is to somehow get you to fully implement using your attention constructively.

You must stop all incoming negative conversations at the "gateway" to your mind - as they will destroy your happiness. You must, as the experts say, not allow any toxic visitor to be entertained in your brain, as it poisons your brain and your happiness.

You must guard your own words supercarefully as they are heard powerfully by your "dumb" brain, which just records stuff without screening it for how true it is.

NO TOLERANCE!

You must not tolerate negative beliefs. You must only speak positive, empowering beliefs - dumping the negatives instantaneously and substituting the opposite positive.

To do that, you must realize that the believed payoff of speaking and/or thinking negatively is just not true and not real - it is only believed, like a child believes a fairy tale. Someone might rescue you once in a while, but overall you'll be screwing your self esteem and power - practicing powerlessness and negativity makes it automatic and has it rule you. You must not allow that, obviously, for it will destroy your happiness - and freedom!

As in Watch Your Inputs Carefully For They Determine Your Outputs, you repeat the good stuff as often as possible and you keep it "top of the mind", with a steady inflow of good stuff.

You re-view what you want, reading and repeating it several times a day - repeating your goals and affirmations related to them as often as possible. You learn new affirmations and new empowering beliefs and you repeat them often - and don't stop until you've repeated them so much that they are memorized and automatic - ready to pop up to offset whatever remains of your really stupid, harmful beliefs that you think are true (at some level).

You can't even afford to spend time watching the news, or even no value programs showing how dysfunctional people operate. That will fill your brain with negatives, distractions, and incredibly dysfunctional beliefs that are agreed to by many people (but not true!).

Don't let yourself even get a little sloppy here.

ADDRESS IF NECESSARY, BUT RIGHT AWAY!

Yes, you'll still have concerns pop up, but you'll address them right away if they need to be handled.

And you'll learn to ask "is there any useful purpose to entertaining this conversation?" - and if not, you'll stop, doing whatever you have to do to shove something else into the spot. Hopefully, you'll have a few prime mantra and a few coping statements (kind of like mantras but they minimize or handle in some way some not-positive occurrence). See Coping Statements, Minimizing Statements, and Mantras

PLAN AHEAD, ORGANIZE

If you follow the Inputs Determine Outputs piece, you'll plan ahead on what you put your attention on, using some sort of easy accessible collection of positives to focus on.

If you follow this religiously, you'll not even allow no-value items to clutter your brain, filling it up along with the trash and toxics you put into it.

The idea is to go from Example A to Example B, where A has so many negatives that cancel out the positives to B, where the negatives are eliminated making room for the positives. Both have the same number of attention units

Example A - This person has this mix of where they put attention (and supply of what to pay attention to).

Example B - This person works on reducing as much of the negative as possible and learning new positives and/or focusing on positive goals.

(This person's space is no longer full of negatives, leaving space available for more positives, even if they are the same ones over and over if he hasn't brought in more "positives" to come to mind or access.

Which one do you want to be?

Alternative accounting:

Negatives Positives Net

Example A -20 5 -15 = Happiness screwed

Example B - 5 20 +15

Difference +15 +15 +30

Person B is infinitely happier.

Each time we stop a negative from filling up the attention unit available, we leave open the alternative to insert a positive in its place, but even if the attention unit has no positivity it is directed for, we are still ahead by not experiencing the negative!

KEEP ON INVESTING

The dividends are immense, but few people invest and/or keep on investing.

It is something that you need to keep on doing, as the payoff is really huge. And notice that it takes less and less effort after awhile (but not right away!) because the new way of doing things and thinking becomes automatic (i.e. virtually effortless and without opposition to overcome also!!!).

TYING THIS DOWN, COMPLETING

Are you convinced that what you pay attention to has to be totally altered and concentrated on only the positive (including immediately solving any negative that should be addressed)? ___ Yes; ___ No

Do you still think you can get away with letting the negative in and not constantly inputting and maintaining the positive? ___ Yes; ___ No

Do you still think that you should continue letting the negative in because it serves some useful purpose (beyond just noting it and dealing with it if needed, but never repeating it beyond that)? ___ Yes; ____ No

Will you then choose to commit to a way of life for the rest of your life where you guard superstrongly against the negatives and manage and create the positives? ___ Yes, definitely, diligently and ___ For all of my life

___ No, I can do fine without that.

I commit to doing the homework (20 to 40 hours to do a great job) and applying the rigor to get a great supply for my positive arsenal.

___ Yes; ___ No, falling short is my choice

A FEW MORE OBSERVATIONS

Notice the Law Of Focus - if you spread your attention around randomly, you'll not get anywhere - you've got to stay on the path you want to go down - and a straight line is the shortest distance between two points: where you are and where you want to be. (If you are constantly focusing your attention on what is wrong, you'll get tired and make no progress - and you'll probably wonder why - and probably think there is something implicitly or explicitly wrong with you. You've got to see that it is not about you, it is about all the stuff you've stuck on the central, real you - that real you is fully capable of accomplishing an amazing amount of stuff with less effort - once you remove and stop all the interferences "getting in your face" and holding you back, keeping you otherwise occupied.)

Available and ready positives - You must have your positive arsenal instantly available (memorize or on paper) and ready to fire. People who stop short are disappointed in the results - because they are doing it half-way. So you need to work on a very good supply - which will take some time, but it's well worth it. Put lots of arrows in your quiver and get good at firing them!

What types of statements are negative? Now, c'mon! You know. The ones that aren't positive. Any statements about the past that aren't pleasant memories, any justification or explanation that supports a negative or not moving forward, standards that are unverified and result in falling short, judgments of others, anything derogatory - all are negatives that hold you back or hold you down. Stop these cold - no tolerance!

Unless in a very constructive problem solving context, point out errors in logic or mistakes in facts, constructing counterarguments are negative in tenor. Any I win, you lose is also a negative.

Anything to prove or assert a negative - such as the world is not a good place and people are dangerous - is a negative.

Note that there is no legitimate payoff - Thinking that there is anything to be gained from negative thinking is an example of uncompleted thinking, not thinking things through to their logical conclusion or effect. Or it is inaccurate thinking. There is not a single cogent argument for dwelling in the negative beyond using a negative for a sign to solve something.