How to Notice What Matters in a World Filled with Noise and Distraction

The thing about young people is that the world is still new to them. And this ‘newness’ is essential for coming up with new ideas… Once the world stops seeming ‘new’, you stop seeing new patterns, you just start rehashing the old ones.”

—@gapingvoid

And who wants to rehash old stuff?

Once we learn to become aware of our surroundings, much of it becomes new again. Like we’ve never seen it before… because in most cases we haven’t. Call it nose to the grindstone, better yet… nose to the phone syndrome.

Most of us think we have an acute awareness of our surroundings… until someone or some event shakes us back into reality.

What do you notice? Small things? Only the glaringly obvious? What do you see when you walk into a new room, say a new friend’s living room? Recently, I read an article that said most people notice only two to three things and it’s usually furniture, big furniture… like a sofa.

Did their senses fail to register the 98 other things?

The practice of mindfulness is getting a lot of good press lately. But is it just awareness rebranded? Mindfulness takes us to the next level where your awareness is centered in the “now.” The gurus call this presence or being present (I know, lots of woo woo sounding words).

So you ask, “Where else would I be if I’m not in the present?” Would it surprise you that most of us live with our thoughts either reliving some event from the past or worrying about something that hasn’t happened yet and probably won’t.

I hope it doesn’t sound like I’m trying to take you on some existential journey. Let’s just call it raising our awareness to a level where we notice more of our surroundings in the here and now and go with that.

So, just how do you do that?

Have you ever heard of a practice called Tiny Habits? It’s a simple method you can use to make big changes one tiny, micro-habit at a time. I won’t dive into that here, but I do recommend checking out the link below if you’d like a simple way to start making changes through the power of (good) habits.

To raise awareness of my surroundings, I started with a simple micro-habit (aka “tiny habit”) that goes like this… “After I sit down for lunch, I will take note of my surroundings. It took me a couple of weeks, but it worked brilliantly. Now I’m notching it up by saying “Whenever I enter a new space, I will pause briefly and take note of my surroundings.

An FBI agent once told me that always being aware of my surroundings could save my life someday.

If that’s not reason enough to pay attention, what is?

The goal now though is simply to get back into the habit of taking a pause, looking around, and seeing what you can see… you know, the things that are usually overlooked because our attention is focused elsewhere. In our thoughts. On our phones.

Or possibly… not focused on anything at all.

We say we’re looking at what is right in front of us, but we look in a way that escapes most of us. When we look at the world, we should not just passively see ghostlike images of our surroundings, but examine it with a deliberate awareness, even from a different perspective.

Contemplate this quote for a moment…

There are a few things in life so beautiful they hurt: swimming in the ocean while it rains, reading alone in empty libraries, the sea of stars that appear when you’re miles away from the neon lights of the city, bars after 2am, walking in the wilderness, all the phases of the moon, the things we do not know about the universe…”

—Beau Taplin, author

What if you’re simply not aware enough to notice? Wouldn’t that be a tragedy?

Take a look around. Inhale deeply. Listen. Be untucked.

EPILOGUE ~

When the Dalai Lama was asked what surprised him most about humanity his response was:

“Man surprised me most about humanity. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived”

—Dalai Lama

I hope you enjoyed this week’s post. If it resonated, maybe share it with a friend?

(Learn about Tiny Habits at https://www.tinyhabits.com)

Copyright © 2019 Jeff Meister – All Rights Reserved