Attention is the most essential cognitive skill to foster your intelligence. Wherever your attention goes, your mind gets engaged to it and start processing. If you do not know how to be attentive, your attention will conquer the mind and let it wander from here to there, and eventually, you might live a life full of distractions.
➡ Chapter 1: 4 Steps to Be Your Own Life Coach
➡ Chapter 2: How to Understand Your Mind
👉 Part 1: What is Consciousness?
👉 Part 2: What is the Subconscious Mind?
👉 Part 3: How to Control Your Mind
👉 Part 4: How to Stop Reacting and Start Responding
👉 Part 5: How to Master Your Mind
➡ Chapter 3: You Are Here
➡ Chapter 4: How to Improve Attention
➡ Chapter 5: How to Boost Your Intelligence
➡ Chapter 6: What is Self-Awareness?
👉 Part 1: How To Stop Unwanted Thoughts
👉 Part 2: How to Be Happy
👉 Part 3: How to Deal With Anxiety & Depression
➡ Chapter 7: What is Conscious Intelligence & How to Be Conscious Intelligent
In this article, I shall explain three basic reasons why do you need to be attentive.
Before beginning, you should be aware of the three types of attention. Attention can be sustained, selective, and divisive.
Sustained attention is when you are attentive towards something for a long period; this type of attention can enhance your life skills. Selective attention is when you are selectively attentive to something and not aware of other surrounded to you. Divisive attention is when your attention moves here and there, it is in fluctuation.
So, let’s get acquitted with the three basic reasons why you need to be attentive.
✅ Energy Flows Where Attention Goes
Energy Flows Where Attention Goes
Wherever you divert your attention, your primary processing unit loads whatever is related in the direction of attention. If you have read how to understand the mind, you already know that whatever loads into your primary processing unit; energy flows in that direction.
Human life is a combination of two basic elements; energy and time.
When you can manage your energy, by giving the mind the right attention in life, you can manage time consequently.
Let’ understand how energy flows in the direction of attention with an example.
Suppose you are watching a horror movie, you might experience fear or excitement, depending upon your memorized thoughts you already stored for a horror movie. In this case, you let your attention flow towards horror and as a consequence, your energy flows in the direction of fear or excitement.
Similarly, when you encounter nude scenes within the frame of the horror movie, I think, I don’t need to explain where your energy might flow.
So, it is important for you to understand that wherever your attention is, your energy may be converted into thoughts, actions or memory. But, do you want to fill up your memory with unwanted thoughts or experiences? Nobody wants to do it, but humans do it without cognizance.
In the journey of life skill development, you have to provide mental diets relevant to your life; otherwise, you might lose the vital part of life, the energy you have.
Attention and Intelligence are Inseperable
Most of the intelligence skills such as decision-making, problem-solving, and deductive thinking require you to think for a long time, don’t you agree?
What will happen if your mind fluctuates while solving a problem? What will happen if you lose attention frequently while making a decision?
Rome was not built in a day. Don’t you think you need to be attentive to boost your intelligence?
What might happen if you are intelligent but not as attentive as required?
Let’s understand through an example.
You might sometime encounter people who become judgmental too often, even though they are intelligent. Probably, in the debates on television channels, you might have noticed intellectuals who become judgmental without analyzing the whole chapter. Do you know what happens to them while analyzing an issue? They lose attention; their attention fluctuates here and there. As a consequence of the fluctuating attention, they become judgmental.
Society sometimes calls them as pseudo-intellectuals. But, I call them as the intelligent one; who is not aware, attentive and conscious enough.
Related Article:
Effective Communication Skill Needs You to Be Attentive
Can you speak fluently without paying attention to what you are speaking?
Can you win a debate without listening actively what others are saying?
As I mentioned, in the first of reason of why you need to be attentive, energy flows where attention goes. You need to be attentive to communicate effectively. You should be clear and concise of what you say and attentive enough to rationalize what you hear. If you hear attentively, you are listening, otherwise, it is just hearing.
In my previous example on pseudo-intellectualism, I have explained how one becomes pseudo-intellectual due to lack of attention. If you really want to become conscious intelligent, you have to communicate effectively and to do this, you need to be attentive.
Conclusion
In the journey of life, I hope you have understood the few basic necessities of attention. I have already mentioned that attention is the most basic cognitive skill for human intelligence. Since attention is a skill, it is also developed through practice.
In the next article, you shall learn how to improve your attention skill through practice.
Do you have any interesting idea to share about the importance of being attentive?
Do let me know in the comment.
Read Next: How to Improve Your Attention
Ashim, the Founder of MindWiper, loves to learn, share, and educate various dimensions of life skills development. After graduating with an engineering degree, he worked with major ICT industries in India and finally he followed his dream to integrate technology for Cognitive Skills & Life Skills Development.