We live in a world where focus is difficult. With so many different things and people constantly vying for our attention, the ability to shut it all out and concentrate on whatever the task at hand is is increasingly more valuable. We now live in an attention economy, defined by Wikipedia as “the management of information that treats human attention as a scarce commodity.” We must all recognize that our time is our most valuable individual resource, and in a society that is resource hungry, we must allocate it wisely. Fortunately, “attention works much like a muscle—use it poorly and it can wither; work it well and it grows.”
In his book, Goleman tells us how attention comes from two places: top-down, or conscious attention, and bottom-up, or subconscious attention. “Voluntary attention, willpower, and intentional choice are top-down; reflexive attention, impulse, and rote habit are bottom-up.” The wrestling match that happens between these two systems is often referred to as willpower—and is also a facet of ego. “Willpower keeps us focused on our goals despite the tug of our impulses, passions, habits, and cravings.” This is the struggle between finishing that last term-paper, or finishing responding to all your work emails, while your friends are hanging out at the bar or watching The Walking Dead finale without you. Do you have the focus and discipline to finish your work, or do you indulge in the distraction of friends and leisure time activities?
There are three areas where our attention must be honed in order to be a well rounded human: inner, other, and outer. Goleman breaks these three categories down by examining how “inner focus attunes us to our intuitions, guiding values, and better decisions. Other focus smooths our connections to the people in our lives. And outer focus lets us navigate in the larger world.” The first two, inner and other focus, are both naturally developed in the brain. We have been developing these mental systems since the dawn of Homo Sapiens so as to better understand ourselves and to better live as a human in a society with other humans. Our brains have grown and adapted to modern society and our internal mental circuitry has the hardware to complement these focuses. Indeed, there are people who have trouble with self-focus (alexithymia) and other-focus (aspergers), but people with trouble in one or both of these areas can improve them with mindfulness techniques and social recognition training (with obvious exceptions for people with abnormal brain chemistry.) Interestingly, outer focus, described as an ability to recognize and operate within the larger macro-systems of society, is not organically developed in the brain. This aspect of focus is one that must be cultivated and honed with purpose and specificity. Again, we can trace this back to our evolutionary heritage. The larger systems of modern society incorporating millions of people are a relatively recent phenomenon in human history and have not been transferred over to the naturally developing human brain (yet).
For many years, psychology has “put academic skills in a separate category from social and emotional ones.” But the reality is that “the neural scaffolding for executive control underlies both academic and social/emotional skills.” Basically, the same way that mind and body are one, so are IQ and EQ. “In the design of the brain they are highly interactive, not fully independent.” Goleman says, and exemplifies how “kids who can’t pay attention can’t learn; they also can’t manage themselves well.” He goes on to write how the one true determining factor of the future success of children is willpower, and how “for financial success, self-control in childhood proved a stronger predictor than either IQ or social class of the family of origin.” The Stanford marshmallow experiment is the perfect example of this. In 1972, Stanford psychologist Walter Mischel did a study where he gave children a choice between one marshmallow now, or two marshmallows later. The child was left alone in a room with a marshmallow for about 15 minutes and told to wait. Some gobbled it up immediately, but the ones who were able to delay the desire for the treat until the researcher returned received double the marshmallows. In follow up studies, the children who were able to wait the 15 minutes and delay the gratification of a tasty snack were more likely to have more favorable life outcomes including better SAT test scores and educational achievements, more healthy bodies as measured by body mass index calculations, and were reportedly happier later in their lives. Goleman echos these findings in his book, and traces it back to awareness and attention. Children (and people) who are aware of themselves and have the willpower to direct their attention and focus with purpose are better able to navigate society.
So, do you want to have better focus during these days of constant distraction? You can, you just have to work at it. “Memorization works that muscle, as does concentration. The mental analog of lifting a free weight over and over is noticing when our mind wanders and bringing it back to target.” Being aware of yourself, others, and the world at large, and being able to cycle through each at the appropriate time is also important, and is a technique that can also be practiced and honed. Maintaining focus has become a skill of paramount importance as our time has become our most valuable commodity. Spend it wisely.