Attention Expands The Goals On Which It Is Focused
An old saying goes: “That which we put our attention on, expands.” When we’ve put our attention on negatives like difficulty, unfairness, obstacles, limitations and reasons why we haven’t been able to do something, we’ve put our attention on matters that do not move us forward. We have then unwittingly formed a goal of not moving forward because our attention has been focused on negatives.
There’s no way that a trained Olympic athlete would ever say just before a competition, “I can’t do it – it’s too hard – who do I think I am that I can medal in this event?” The reason is self-evident: to do so would be to put attention on some aspect of failure. At best, that unwisely-focused attention would dilute one’s power to hit one’s goals. At worst, that choice would impair one’s performance and even invite disaster.
Can you think of examples in yourself or others where you have heard litanies of attention being put on negatives? Do you believe that that behavior can and should be changed if one wishes to reach your goals? How urgent is that change in behavior?