Working With an Attention Deficit
Recognizing this – and what an attention deficit means – is the first step in working with it.
For me, I know I don’t have ADD or ADHD. Often, I have what I call ADOS – Attention Deficit Oooooooo Shiny syndrome. I get distracted by something that catches my attention and takes over my focus.
I know a lot of people who, as adults, have determined they suffer from either Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). This is why they are convinced they have a hard time focusing, concentrating, and in extreme cases getting anything done or finding satisfaction in life.
Let me be clear – I am not any kind of medical professional. Thus, I would not refute a doctor’s diagnosis. What I do want to explore, however, is how anyone – even those with one of these diagnosed disorders – can work with an attention deficit.
Where does an attention deficit come from?
All you need to do is look at modern civilization. Specifically, First World cultures. We have some incredible, amazing technology that allows us to share thoughts, ideas, opinions, facts, and fiction anywhere and anytime. A Google search will get answers to just about any question you have.
Not so very long ago, to communicate with someone not in your immediate home, instantly, still tethered you to a specific place. It might have been your home, a phone booth, or anywhere else phones were found. After that, instant communications become possible via cellular phones.
Now, they have evolved into computers which let you conference face-to-face instantly with someone on the other side of the globe. Instantly. It’s amazing how much you can do with a mobile phone presently.
But this has come at a price. The price is cramming more into less. The tabloid of just a couple of decades back has become the clickbait of today.
What’s more, deep thought and critical reasoning are frequently disregarded for the instant info of Googling answers. Even wrong answers.
Society is all about instant gratification. We expect it to be fast, immediate, and readily digestible. Even a think-piece article – such as this – has needed subheadings and breaks to make it more readable to those who skim.
I’m guilty. I don’t always read most blogs word-for-word. I skim until something resonates with me – and then I read closer.
Information is almost too easy to come by now. And that has impacted our attention. Rather than inform us and open us to gleaning more with greater depth – we only get parts and pieces, then move on. Rather than focus on one idea, we divide our attention.
Then, we miss how doing so causes a lack of satisfaction – and results in a deficit.
Divided attention is divided
Do you eat meals at a dining room or kitchen table? Do you focus on just eating and being with family/friends?
Or, like me, do you eat in front of the TV?
When you sit down to watch a program, do you just watch – or are you also on a phone or tablet playing online?
This has become a frequent, normal occurrence. Attention is divided between multiple things – several of which may be unrelated. The multitasker has come to be more valued than the unitasker – despite plenty of science and study disproving the efficiency of multitasking.
But how many jobs of the present-day – expected of 1 person – used to be done by 3? Too many.
It has become standard practice to divide your attention. What’s more, it’s super easy to do so and not even recognize you’re doing it.
As I have been writing this article – rather than just sit here and write it out, I’ve gotten up to get a glass of water and refill my coffee, converse with my wife, glance at Messenger, and distracted myself looking to my 2nd monitor noting emails that have arrived. I can argue that this allows me to consolidate some thoughts – but the reality is that I am dividing my attention.
That, in turn, creates an attention deficit.
What does deficit mean?
Three of the definitions of the word deficit from Dictionary.com address this particular idea:
- the amount by which expenditures or liabilities exceed income or assets
- a lack or shortage; deficiency
- a disadvantage, impairment, or handicap
As to the first above definition, if you have ‘X’ amount of attention to give in the first place, the deficit occurs when you exceed it. Hence, you can only divide your attention so much before you run out.
Then, after all that division, you have a deficiency. A shortage of attention. Which becomes a disadvantage, impairment, or handicap.
As such, it’s less about being pulled into too many places at once, and more about not having enough attention overall to give. This is why multitasking doesn’t lessen the amount of attention you use – but increases it. The division this creates then builds up to a deficit – and now you have an attention deficit.
Because this is a cultural, societal problem, it likely impacts you. Maybe it doesn’t – and if that’s the case, more power to you.
Also, it may only impact you infrequently.
Whatever the case may be – when you have an attention deficit, how can you work with it and overcome it?
Working with an attention deficit
The first step is to recognize this exists. To do that, you need to be mindful.
Mindfulness makes you consciously aware of your inner being – your mindset/headspace/psyche. That awareness tells you where your attention is being placed.
Working with mindfulness to be consciously aware, here and now, shows you if your attention is divided. Not only that – but how it’s divided.
Once you have awareness of this – own it. Society loves to place blame rather than be accountable – but this can’t be fixed with blame. Frankly, nothing can. You, and you alone, can work with this. But you must be accountable and responsible for it. Thus – you must own it.
When you own a home, you can make more-or-less any changes you desire. Paint the walls any color, knockdown non-load-bearing walls to alter the space, and so on. Owning your attention is the same. When you are accountable for it – you gain control of it. And can then change it.
You can, as such, lessen the division of your attention.
Additionally, owning the attention deficit lets you refocus your attention. Or change it completely.
When you recognize and own your attention deficit, you have the power to alter it. Mindfulness and being aware of your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions show you your inner being. That’s your mindset/headspace/psyche – and where your attention is and isn’t. That recognition – and acknowledging it – empowers you to take control of it.
Rather than be a victim of an attention deficit – you empower yourself to control it. Thus, you can work with the attention deficit – and do as you need/want/desire to do.
The choice, and the decision, belong to you
How would you work with an attention deficit you’re faced with?
This is the four-hundred and seventy-eighth exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are ideas for – and my personal experiences with – mindfulness and walking along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.
I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world along the way. Additionally, I desire to empower myself and my readers with conscious reality creation.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-blog and share this.
The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. My additional writing, both fiction and non-fiction, are available here.
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