The Fattest Wallet

Photo by Hamed Taha on Unsplash

What do you pay attention to?

 

Because you really are paying.

 

See, your attention is the most valuable thing you have. Many of us are convinced that money is the most valuable thing. Others hold the conviction that time is the most valuable thing.

 

But really, it’s your attention.

 

Because you could have all the free time in the world, and still waste it by focusing on things that create unhappiness. You could have all the money in the world but be caught in an endless spend cycle, trying to fill the emotional and spiritual gap that persists no matter how much luxury you lavish upon your outer life.

 

You likely don’t have unlimited time or money.

 

But you do have unlimited attention.

 

You have all the attention in the world.

 

Every bit of your focus belongs to you; no one else can steal it. Not without your permission. And as you probably know by now, where focus goes, energy flows: you can bring your mood down or up depending on what you choose to focus on.

 

All of your moods are moderated by what you think about.

 

Focus experiment one: Watch the evening news and you’ll feel unhappier than you did an hour earlier.

 

Focus experiment two: Spend an hour on the phone with a friend you haven’t seen in a while and you’ll feel happier.

 

Your attention is the highest-value item that you can give to anyone or anything. You spend it. You pay your attention to things.

 

Where you put your attention can add up to an energetic cost—a tax of sorts. For example:

 

• You take a friend for beer and spend your time listening to them bitch about the state of the world. Net loss.

• You spend an hour on social media every evening, skipping around from post to post, searching for the thing that’s going to grab you and teach you something new that you probably won’t ever use. Taxed.

• You stew about that guy who leaned on his horn, embarrassing you for sitting out in the middle of the intersection because you drifted off and didn’t notice the light had turned. You play the anger-shame loop again and again in your mind. Net loss.

• You feel guilty and out of the loop if you don’t read all the newsletters you subscribe to, even though they’re not in your lane. So you read them. Because other smart people read them. Big tax.

 

Your attention works like an investment. You can squander it like in the list above, or you can direct it toward what you want more of. For example:

 

• You sit yourself down to write 250 words every day in your book. By year’s end you’ve completed a full draft.

• You pay attention to your breathing for six deep, relaxed belly breaths and reset your nervous system.

• You bring your complete focus to the person you’re in conversation with, listening to understand so that they feel heard, which builds trust.

• You look for people who are innovating around climate change rather than blaming industry and government.

 

What you pay attention to grows, no matter whether it’s something you dread or something you really want.

 

The great news is, you have full power over your attention. You can’t say that about your time, and you probably can’t say that about your money, either. But you’re in the driver’s seat when it comes to what you focus on.

 

Your attention is incredibly precious. It’s like a wallet that bristles with hundreds every morning, and it keeps refilling itself throughout the day. It never empties. Every time you look inside, there’s more. It’s magic—a continuously renewing resource.

 

It’s the fattest wallet you could imagine. And its contents are very, very powerful.

 

Take responsibility for where you put it.