attention is a skill — here's how to fix yours

in the 1650s, an old French guy named Blaise Pascal said something that’s still up for debate today:

‘all of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.’

a lot of people disagree, but i think he was onto something — & it all comes down to 1 simple idea:

attention is a skill.

that means you can get better or worse at it over time.

how?

like anything else, it takes practice — & the best way to do that is meditation.

if you’re rolling your eyes right now, you probably have the same problem that i had for years:

nobody understands what meditation really is.

this is because the definition we use only describes the state of meditation — not the actions you can take to create it.

i wanted to change that.

so, after 3ish years of meditating every day, lots of mistakes, & 1 ‘transcendental’ experience (lol i swear), i came up with a simple, action-based definition that i wish i knew sooner:

meditation is just paying attention to your attention, without being attached to where it goes.

that’s it.

but if you want to do it, it helps to understand how your mind really works.

& this is the best explanation i have:

• i think we all have a ‘smart brain’ & a ‘monkey brain.’

• our smart brain is quiet & organized. our monkey brain is loud & chaotic.

• since the monkey brain is louder, it’s usually the one we hear by default.

• meditation is basically the act of using our smart brain to sort through all of the monkey brain’s bullshit until there’s empty space leftover.

that empty space is called ‘being fully present,’ & it’s what you probably think of when you imagine meditation.

but getting there is way easier said than done — especially now that our phones feed our monkey brains 24/7.

something has to change.

so, i made a list of the specific actions i can take to reliably reach that state of mind whenever i want.

& here’s what i came up with:

how to meditate in 5 seconds

try any (or all) of the following…

• let go of the tension in your jaw. let your face relax.

• let your fingers loose & try to notice the buzzing energy in your fingertips.

• take 1 slow, deep breath through your nose. feel it open your ribcage & your belly. let it out as slowly as you can without discomfort. focus on the breath. relax your muscles (don’t shit your pants).

• open your eyes & take in your full field of view. see everything in your middle & peripheral vision all at once.

• try to notice what is touching your skin. feel every sensation, whether it’s the softness of the shirt you’re wearing, the pressure of the floor against you, a gentle breeze, or whatever there is — just try to really notice it.

how to meditate in 5 minutes

do everything above, but first…

• if you can, go somewhere that calms you. i like a local park or my living room.

• sit or lie down comfortably.

• it can help to put on earplugs or listen to quiet music like this or this.

then…

• pay attention to each thought that arrives & sort them into 1 of 3 buckets:

  • memories

  • plans

  • imagination

how to meditate for 1 hour

do everything above, & also…

• keep reminding yourself that it’s not about stopping your mind from wandering. it’s about noticing when it happens, observing the thoughts that come, & then letting them go. that’s why sorting helps.

please, just give it a try.

if you do it often enough, what begins to happen is nothing short of magic.

eventually you start to notice your own thoughts automatically, even when you’re not meditating.

someone will honk at you in traffic, you’ll want to cuss them out, & that quiet little voice in your mind will say ‘why are you angry right now? you’re not stuck in traffic, you are traffic.’ & then you’ll find it hard to stay angry.

or you’ll have a lot of work to do & feel overwhelmed one day, but when you want to just stop working & mindlessly distract yourself, that little voice will come back & say ‘you’re all good dude. none of these problems are impossible. you just need to focus on 1 at a time.’

i could list a million examples like that just from last week.

the point is, there’s nobody you’ll spend more time talking to in the whole world than yourself.

you might as well make sure those conversations are a 2 way street.

training your attention is how you do that.

because, again:

attention is a skill.

meditation is just how you level up.

some things i learned

1. the secret to a happy relationship

   

2. a life hack
   if your thoughts get too big, go somewhere you feel small.

   

3. humans literally ‘feel’ emotions
   a study in 2014 asked 700 people to fill out a heat map showing where they felt different emotions. the results were weirdly consistent throughout.

cool stuff i found

1. a beautiful bloom of bluebells in Belgium
   (say that 5 times fast lol)

   

2. a cool looking building

   

3. a book i’ve been enjoying
   i love learning, & one of my favourite things to learn about is how other people’s minds work. this book is the closest thing to that for Elon Musk.
   
   we share a similar process when it comes to ‘how to think.’
   
   remember, you don’t have to agree with someone to learn from them!

   

that’s all for this week!

my April production goal for YT was 5 ‘actually good’ videos posted.

i’m 4 short right now (lol).

the good news is, 2 are filmed & in the process of being edited, so i can still do it!

truthfully, some days it feels hard to find motivation when i keep ‘knocking on the door’ of my biggest goals but can never seem to fully break through.

but one of the biggest lessons i’ve learned from entrepreneurship is that doing the work isn’t actually the hard part.

the hard part is doing the work over & over again, putting weeks/months/years into something, not seeing the results you want, & then continuing to show up the next day & try again.

it’s why most people fail.

but it’s also why i’ll succeed — i just won’t stop knocking.

see you next week (;

~ liam

PS - i’m serious about the meditation stuff! please give it a real chance, even if it’s only 5 seconds each day.