The Case For Paying Attention
As someone speaking from both experience and life in the tech world, technology can be a double-edged sword.
On the one side, technology allows us to be productive from any location. Freedom like this in our work life was never really afforded us in the past. More and more people can uproot their lives, find income opportunities, and (in my case) live in a completely new area to have a "better quality of life." I put that concept in parentheses because it's still a work in progress. CEOs rejoice (or do they?) that they can attend a family member's sports game while remaining plugged in to work needs. Emails can be sent from virtually anywhere (see what I did there?), and every day a new digital nomad screams promises in 60-second videos of making your dreams come true while living life on the run.
Remember boredom? What's that? Our phones make sure that we are never bored. Stuck in line? Phones fill the air in our hands as our minds slowly escape from our present world moment to a virtual world filled with endless information and consumer content.
We are constantly plugged in. Which brings us to the other edge of the sword.
Are we paying attention?
On the days that I set my phone down, like today, and eat a sandwich while gazing out the window, I notice something. I'm missing everything that's going on around me when I'm not paying attention. The longer my phone is away, the more I can breathe again. I take a deep breath, see a happy person walking by or a bee buzzing against the window, and feel...free. Not the manufactured free that I feel being tethered to my phone, but real freedom.
That's not all that I notice. Without my phone, I have more creative thoughts. They come flooding in at a rate that feels like bubbles in the air evaporating before I can catch them all. I still try. This past weekend, I completed 48 hours without social media or interacting with others. I was able to hear my thoughts again. I realized and saw that I had gotten away from my vision and purpose for The More You Grow® and built a plan to reset it.
I learned I had been feeling off with how things were going but was too distracted to see it.
My argument is this: had I not paid attention to how I felt, how the business was going, and life passing before my eyes, the further I would have become off track. Paying attention and listening to ourselves is not just necessary but crucial for business owners, leaders, and entrepreneurs.
If we are not listening to ourselves, then who are we listening to each day?