Lead a vivid life that does good

Our attention defines our beliefs

“Cask wine still exists!” I was surprised to say the least. I had been eating lunch with friends and they politely informed me that cask wine was still a thing. Not convinced, because I’ve never seen it at the supermarket, I decided to check it out the next time I went shopping and I was expecting it to be tucked away in some obscure place.

Well it turns out… There is an entire shelf for cask wine, who knew!

It shouldn’t have surprised me, because they are over 20,000 different items in many supermarkets, far more than our brains can keep track of. So as we walk around looking for the items on our shopping list, our brains shut out all the clutter so that we are not overwhelmed and can focus on what we need.

Our attention is focused only on what we want to see.

Which is

a

BIG

problem!

In our everyday lives, we are constantly ignoring most things that are counter to our world view.

To make matters worse, we subconsciously choose to only read or learn or engage with books and articles and videos that support our existing views.

All that leads us to make judgements and build beliefs that are not based on a full picture.

They are based on what we choose to see!

To finish my wine story. I’m a low-level wine snob and generally buy international wine, which is right next to the cask wine (See photo). Cask Wine

It was literally right in front of my eyes. Every … time … I went to buy wine.

Where we focus our attention … is where we form our view of reality.

Even if it’s not real.

Over and over again I have beliefs that are not based on fact. They are based entirely on where I historically focused my attention.

By not changing where I focus my attention, I become close minded.

Which doesn’t make me a great leader.

And makes me a lesser human.

 

Next week, big promise, I’ll share how ‘learning at the edges’ can help with our attention.

1 Comment

  1. Ivan

    Hi Andrew, i think its really cool how you are always looking at ways to learn and challenge your current pattern of thinking. It’s like continually upgrading of yourself from the inside out and I dig that 🙂