Attention Has a Cost
Attention Has a Cost
Your attention is limited, so choose wisely where you’ll direct it.
Here’s a quick little follow-up to Election Anxiety, which sparked a lot of response in my inbox.
The point is that your attention is limited. It is a resource that is depleted as you spend it, and only recharges after a certain amount of rest. Perhaps that’s why it’s called paying attention—because your attention has a cost.
With any depleting resource, you have to make choices in how to allocate it. Spend all your money instead of setting some aside in savings? You might have a problem when an emergency shows up. Wear yourself out in a fight with your partner or friend? Your nervous system will be troubled for the rest of the day.
In short, attention matters.
Life is all about choosing where to direct our attention.
When you stop giving your attention to something, you gain more of this precious resource for yourself. You can then spend it on all kinds of other things!
When it comes to politics, none of this means you shouldn’t vote, or that you shouldn’t care about the outcome of an election. It just means that you have limited capacity to pay attention, and you can do better things with it.
At least that’s my view. 🙂
Comments are still open on the original post, and I’ll have something new for you on Friday.
Thank you for reading, as always. I don’t take your attention for granted!