Attention: The Most Expensive Asset

The most expensive asset in the world is attention. 

No matter what you do - teach your students, advocate for a political cause or sell something - you need it. Companies are spending billions of dollars to grab the attention of potential consumers.

You can sell a bad product or service, but without attention, you won't be able to do anything. You won't be able to do parenting if your kids aren't listening. You won't be able to teach if your students aren't paying attention. And this post I am writing won't mean anything if it doesn't get any eyeballs. 

Attention is everything. It is the most expensive commodity. Your advocacy, promotion or your company is doomed to fail if you don't strategize about ways to grab people's attention. Some type of attention is easy to capture (someone in a movie theater is guaranteed to spend at least half an hour watching a horrible movie) and some type of attention is difficult (driving). 

When we keep doing or seeing the same things, our brain economizes the amount of energy it spends on attention. It will only pay selective attention. 

When one small thing changes in a row of familiar surroundings, we start orienting. It stimulates our brain to pay attention. It also teaches us how to get someone's attention. 

As many claim, the attention span hasn't shortened. We are the same human beings we were hundred years ago. We still watch 4-hour games and 3-hour movies. What changed is a number of alternatives we are presented with. Here is an example: 

If you enter a store that features 5 different types of clothing, you will spend more time examining them. If you enter a huge store with 200 different options, you will spend a lot less time checking each apparel because your brain thinks you have limited time to sort through the one you will like. In short, more alternatives result in less attention span. 

The trick here is to give the most attractive and attention-grabbing scene/product/information upfront. As soon as you catch the attention of someone, they will continue paying attention. In other words, the attention of people hasn't disappeared. They just became more expensive because people are now compelled to pay attention to more things than ever. 

There is no successful person who has a focus and attention problem. It's the essential ingredient of doing something productive and better. Paying too much attention kills creativity, but it is the only path to progress (Take a walk and let your mind wander a few times a day, it will reinvigorate your creativity).

You can exercise being more attentive, which will translate, according to a number of studies, into happiness and success in life. Focus is the most valuable thing you can ask of somebody. And those who can wield their focus in the right way usually end up being winners.