A speaker shares how focusing attention shapes what you notice, using an example of two visiting students to show how choosing one idea filters out distractions. The real work is translating that knowledge into daily practice through repeated choice and effort.
Good morning, everyone. Happy Wednesday, hump day. Here is your moment of yes for today. So this past week I've been talking a lot about authenticity with my students. Yesterday I had a 2-person class, 2 kids that are visiting, one from Nigeria, the other one from Mexico. And we were talking about what you choose to focus on during the day. I love the quote, energy flows where attention goes. And talking about the idea that sort of as you go throughout your day, as you go throughout your life, but as you go throughout your day, there's things around you. There's things that you would label good, things that you would label bad, things you would label annoying, things that you would label— so they're all there, like a room with a bunch of colors. All the colors are there. But if I asked you to focus on one color, what you start to do is you start to filter out all of the other colors. Just like when you're looking to buy a new car, whatever car that you're looking at, when you're on the road, you start to notice all the cars like that car because your filter, your intention is focusing on that one thing. So you start to notice everything that looks like that, which is no different than being in a room of colors and you start to look at that one color. Or to take that outside the classroom is to go through your day and just focus on the things that reinforce what you're trying to achieve, that reinforce the good in your life, that reinforce the gratitude in your life, the positive in your life. Or we can go through our day only noticing the negative things or only noticing the distractions. And so as we talked about that yesterday, I said, so as you go throughout your day, allow the distractions just to be distractions and just focus on the things That reinforce your purpose, that reinforce your authenticity. And the one guy from Nigeria looked at me and said, but how do you do that? And there lies the million-dollar question. How do you do that? It's not easy, and if I knew how to do it, I would be doing it on a daily basis. And so I'm trying. And so what I love about that, the honesty and the innocence of that comment yesterday is that It's one thing to know something in our head. It's another thing to be able to practice it in our heart on a daily basis. And I think our goal is not to make this easy, but just the fact that we are consciously, intentionally— we're awake and we're trying. A, we know that it's possible. We know that it's possible to be the observer and to notice and to choose. If we know that we have the power to notice and to choose, that's the hardest part. Now the next part is to actually do it and to try to be better at it and just to get better by practice and by doing. And so, yeah, how do you do that? That is the big question. But just taking the journey every day, every moment, every experience And making that choice, taking your power back by knowing that you have the power to choose and to notice. So that's your moment of yes for today. A little longer. Sorry about that. But have a great day, everyone.
