What's getting our attention?

What is getting our attention? Have you ever thought about where and what we spend our time and energy on? Where we spend our time and focus on? I just got back from a fun little trip to visit my sister-in-law. She moved to Houston, and want to spend some time at her new home catching up with her. We got up each morning, had our coffee and headed for the gym, and then to play. I was thankful that I kept up my morning routine and slept beautifully. What a great time I had just spending time visiting, going to fun dinners, and playing in her pool.

On the treadmill down there, I listened to one of my favorite podcast and it talked about doing an “attention audit”. Brooke Castillo, who is highly successful and was helping some friends figure out how she accomplishes so much, and why they do not. Not only does she get so much done in her business, she has time for her friends and family. Brooke gave her friends she was helping, the task of writing down what they wanted or needed to spend their attention on. She had them write down a column for their business/career and a column for personal. She went on to explain how in her twenties she was obsessed with her weight and believed she spent at least 50% of her attention on working out, reading diet and exercise books. She explained how she missed out of in so many ways because she gave the weight so much of her attention. Brooke when on to explain how if we plan correctly and truly make conscious decisions on what gets our attention, we can get more things accomplished that are important to us. Do we give our attention to what really matters to us? I have told myself many times to do more yoga and I always have my critter brain (what I call the primal, "stay in the cave and be safe" brain, that I do not have time. Really? It takes 30 minutes. Do I not have 30 minutes to add one other day other than my regular Sunday routine? I enjoy yoga but seem to have every excuse known to man! I am not a mediator but do enjoy the focus that I get from practicing yoga. It gives me a sense of calm. I could definitely be a little more calm.

Today, it is true that so many of us spend to much time consuming so much social media and television that we could focusing on things that are much more important to us. These things could be our personal relationships, such as calling a dear friend or parent, working on our education, doing a craft, or future planning. She explained how if we give attention to things in the future, ca help us in the present. She gave the example of if you were planning an event at a restaurant for several people and you wait to the last minute to make reservations, you will spend way more time trying to get the space, right table etc... just because you did not do weeks out. If you had called several weeks ahead and explained where you wanted to be seated, it would most likely be easier. She referred this as future planning. It makes perfect sense. What I liked most about the podcast episode is how she tells you to right down a list of what you want to be spending time on and what are your time wasters. She said she lists all the people in her life that are extremely important to her such as her kids and mom. She then makes a list things such as obligations for her home, her business, employees, training, her daily habits such as her workouts and walks. She did not mention her time wasters🤔. Maybe that is why she is so successful. She did tell us of what people do waste time on; TV, social media, eating junk food, drinking, doing drugs, and smoking. I would not call all of these dumb but definitely not good for us. If we do an attention audit by writing down what we want to be giving our attention to and what are the time wasters then we can prioritize.

After I finished the episode, I realized how many times I have said I did not have time to do this or that. Yes, I had wasted a lot of time on dumb stuff or time wasters. We really do have more time that we think. Even when I was working 50 hours a week, I could list many time wasters. I like to refer some things as energy drainers as well. I will leave that for another time. Do you ever set down and start looking at facebook and then see an add, go over to google and start reading about some new product? Or, see a post and not sure who they are so you jump over to their page to find and start reading and looking at pics and before you know it, an hour has gone by? Oh, I love it when I have read through some news articles and then start looking up more information of what they are talking about and before I know it, I am reading about something that does not help or add anything to my life, and boom, I do not have enough time to do what needed to be done. I do this more often than I care to admit. I seem to waste more time googling stupid crap that most of you I am sure. I will give myself credit that I watch very little tv and do not get on social media very much. I will upload pics then browse through a little but I have definitely gone a few days without looking at. I think I am going to make my list today and work on my calendar and see where and what is getting my attention and if I need to make some adjustments. Do you? I am making room for more yoga and calmness in my life.

Hope you have a wonderful day!