Selective Attention Gets You To Your Goal

"[Information] consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence, a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently . . . "
Herbert Simon, Nobel Memorial Prize-Winner, Economics

Although we are living in the Information Age, it is the very glut of information that can prevent us from both using our time wisely and making decisions - any decisions.

How does this apply to seeking, and finding, one's dream career?

It's that information creates demands on our attention. How many of us, for example, can sit down at the computer and go immediately to our planned tasks for the day WITHOUT checking overnight email first?

How many of us, after spending hours at our computers, spend time surfing the Web or playing games online in our free time?

We're now seeing commercials where parents complain that their children don't interact with them any more; rather, they are interacting virtually with friends they may or may not know in person.

The point is that finding the ideal career direction for ourselves takes two things: space and time. We need quiet space and time to uncover our deepest desires, to hear the voice that wants to be heard through us, to even know what we really think.

But information demands can make it difficult to arrange that time and space for ourselves.

I believe we need to be ruthless in order to get the time and space we need. Ruthlessness protects your time and your space in order to achieve your dreams.

That doesn't mean we turn our backs on our families, friends or colleagues. Rather, it means we could look at our lives objectively and see just how much time is given to reviewing irrelevant information and how little to selectively chosen information which could benefit us in learning what we need to learn in getting that dream career.

For example, how much time do you spend each day watching the early morning news, going online to keep up with your favorite online blogs, reading the newspaper, or listening to talk radio?

How much time do you spend watching news analysts give you their take on news items you've already heard about? How much time do you spend watching television each day, playing online games, shopping online, etc.?

How much email do you really need to open or forward? How many emails do you read that you know will not add to your knowledge, advance your desire for a new career or help you reach your goals?

If you allow all these distractions to dictate how you spend your time, you will find you do not have enough time to focus on what you want. And you will make excuses for yourself or blame external circumstances.

If you really want a dream career, or anything else that matters to you, you need to be ruthless! You need to develop single-minded focus, and give time and attention to what you want. You need to ignore the siren call of the information circus playing all around you. You need to shut out those voices and concentrate in quiet for periods of time, on what YOU want and how you can get it.

Protect your time and space by eliminating as many extraneous distractions as you can. You may be surprised by how much time you do have. Now, you can use selective attention to focus on what you want.

You can imagine your dream career; research it; have conversations with people who are doing what you want to do; find ways to come closer to it. You can do any or all these things now because you have created the time and space to do so.

So this week, get ruthless. Defend and protect your time and space. You'll be amazed at how excited you'll be by taking more control of your life in this way. And you'll be gratified by how much focus you can now give to your dreams.