The Price Of Freedom Is Control Of Your Attention
“A majority of life’s errors are caused by forgetting what one is really trying to do.”
Distraction is the enemy of wealth creation. Alongside the fear of failure, it’s the greatest obstacle you need to overcome to “win the game.”
The price of freedom is control of your attention.
If You Can Control Your Attention, You Can Win.
There’s a common adage on Twitter that if you can focus for 1-3 hours per day on building something of your own, your life will look drastically different in six months. I think it’s true. I know my life today looks very different than six months ago.
But most people can’t control their attention. They need someone else to structure their time to be productive. And even then, one glance at their daily screen time on their phone tells you they’re not doing much even with that structure.
The Internet Is A Distraction Machine.
The simple reason for this is the internet. You have access to the entire catalog of human knowledge in your pocket AND you can connect with anyone in the world instantly.
Naval Ravikant thinks that’s a recipe for a short attention span, writing:
“Once the Internet came along, I think it destroyed everyone’s attention span. Now all of humanity’s works are available to you at any given time and you’re being interrupted constantly. Our attention span goes down, our ability to focus goes down.”
With a short attention span, it’s very easy to forget what it is you’re trying to do!
You bounce from objective to objective without accomplishing any of them. You’re always chasing the next ‘big idea.’ As Munger says: “A majority of life’s errors are caused by forgetting what one is really trying to do.”
I do this, too. I am in a constant battle for my attention. The most important question I ask myself each day is this: What should I spend my time doing? And once I decide on my objective, I battle with myself to actually focus on accomplishing it!
Anyone who tells you that it’s easy to stay completely focused for hours is lying. You can want something with every muscle in your body and still struggle to put one foot in front of another. It’s the nature of the modern world.
If you can focus on a singular objective - without being distracted by the mass of information available at your fingertips - you can win.
The Modern World Drowns The Signal In Noise.
The internet is full of garbage. It’s full of useless and incorrect information - it’s full of noise. And at the same time, it’s the greatest resource of knowledge ever created.
The secret to success is finding the signal in that noise that you can actually use.
“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” - Herbert A. Simon
Tim Ferriss has a great model for finding signals through the noise. He only seeks out information that is directly applicable to the next step of reaching his goal.
If he’s on step two, he is not interested in information that helps steps three, four, or five. Only step two. This keeps you from getting overwhelmed with details that are not yet relevant to you.
For example, if you want to build a blog from scratch, don’t worry about what platform to use for hosting your site or what newsletter service provider to go with until you’ve decided what niche your blog is in!
That’s step one - defining what you’re going to write about and who your intended audience is. Don’t worry about steps two through ten right now.
This will keep you from getting trapped in the noise. Focus on finding the signal - the useful info that matters most for your next step.
The Smartest People On Earth Are Working To Steal Your Attention.
It’s hard to stay focused for a reason: the smartest people in the world are working to steal your attention. And they are VERY good at it.
From Facebook to Twitter to Instagram to TikTok to Google - you are up against algorithms built to outsmart you.
These apps' designers know precisely what buttons to push - what notifications to send - to flood you with dopamine. That’s the neurotransmitter in your brain that makes you feel good so you stay on the app. And we are all victims.
Of all the possible distractions, Twitter is my kryptonite. I’m a Twitter addict and I know it. But just like the internet as a whole, Twitter is simultaneously an unbelievable tool to scale your ideas and a giant waste of time.
That’s why I carefully control my exposure to it (using the iPhone’s app blocker). I use it as a tool first and as a past time second. I do everything I can to make sure I don’t lose big chunks of my day scrolling aimlessly.
Because it happens. And once I snap out of it, I feel like shit.
Be Very Careful Where You Get Your Dopamine From.
Not all dopamine is the same. Dopamine released from things like social media, sugar, alcohol, or video games makes you crash afterward. (I’m guilty of all of these, by the way. I’m a sucker for a Corona and GTA V).
But the goal is to get the vast majority of your dopamine - pleasure - from things that don’t lead to a crash later on.
That’s why I’m passionate about exercise, meditation, and creativity. These are highs that keep on giving.
Here’s Naval on what he does to “get high” without crashing:
“Highs that don’t lead to subsequent lows:
• Meditation, gratitude, prayer, journaling, unconditional love.
• Yoga, exercise, play, nature walks.
• Creating art, reading for fun, singing, poetry.
• Practicing a craft, pursuing curiosity, work done for its own sake, flow.”
If you want to control your attention, you have to know where you’re getting your dopamine from.
Meditation Can Help You Take Back Control Of Your Mind.
Practicing meditation and mindfulness can help you take back your attention.
When you meditate, you are simply observing how your mind works. You become aware of your thoughts and can learn to become less distracted by them. You become less reactive and more present.
In Tim Ferriss’s book, Tools of Titans, which chronicles the habits of high performers, Tim comes to a startling conclusion:
“More than 80% of the world-class performers I’ve interviewed have some form of daily meditation or mindfulness practice. Both can be thought of as ‘cultivating a present-state awareness that helps you to be nonreactive.’ This applies to everyone from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Justin Boreta of The Glitch Mob, and from elite athletes like Amelia Boone to writers like Maria Popova. It’s the most consistent pattern of them all.”
If you don’t believe meditation improves focus, try it for yourself. There are all different kinds of meditation apps you can use for free. Commit to10 minutes per day for six months.
You may not notice anything in a week or even in the first month. But over the course of several months, you will likely notice a nonlinear change in your emotional life. You’ll be less anxious and more present.
And most importantly, more in control of your attention.
Here’s Naval again:
“The modern mind is overstimulated and the modern body is understimulated and overfed. Meditation, exercise, and fasting restore an ancient balance.”
This ancient balance is the price of freedom. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it.
Keep going.