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Where Is Your Attention?

Written by: Laura Posey

Article Overview: I’ve been doing a lot of studying lately. For me that means reading lots of books, listening to audios and watching webinars and movies. It also includes studying people to see if the things I read about hold true in reality. Here is one of the most important things I’ve learned in the past few months of study.

Where Is Your Attention?

I’ve been doing a lot of studying lately. For me that means reading lots of books, listening to audios and watching webinars and movies. It also includes studying people to see if the things I read about hold true in reality.

Here is one of the most important things I’ve learned in the past few months of study.

I’ve been doing a lot of studying lately. For me that means reading lots of books, listening to audios and watching webinars and movies. It also includes studying people to see if the things I read about hold true in reality.

Here is one of the most important things I’ve learned in the past few months of study.

What you think about most is what you experience in your life.

That is, whatever you put your attention on is what you get more of. For example, if you put your attention on negative things such as being in debt, not liking someone else, hating your job, your kids acting up, etc. you will experience more of those things.

Conversely, if you put your attention to positive things such as money coming to you from unexpected places, the best things about your co-workers or partners, your favorite types of work to do, the good traits about your kids, etc. you will find that more of those things appear in your life.

Here are two recent real-life examples I’ve come across to show you what I mean.

A woman I know is always sick. If it isn’t a headache, it is something with her stomach. If Marlene’s stomach isn’t the problem, it is her hand or foot. Everyday she talks about some ailment she is experiencing. And everyday she finds something else wrong with her health. Her attention is on sickness and that is what she experiences all the time. It is a part of every conversation she has and she repeats her tale of sickness over and over to each new person she meets that day.

If she could, for a minute or two, find a way to think about the 100’s of body parts that are functioning happily at this moment, she’d find that the rest of her ailments would start to disappear. (I’m speaking from personal experience here – I used to be just like that person!)

On the other hand, my dear friend, Paul, is a salesperson who had been struggling lately. He had been prospecting diligently but he wasn’t having any luck bringing in any accounts. He brooded and worried about it for awhile but it didn’t help.

Then he decided to start putting his attention on all the great relationships he was building and the fact that he was doing a great job even though the results weren’t showing up just yet. He started to feel good about his work and trusted that the sales would come in time.

After just a few days of shifting his attention, a very large account fell into his lap.

It was a prospect he had talked to who told him they weren’t ready to make a decision for another four months. Suddenly, they called and placed a very large order!

My question for you is where are you putting your attention this week? Are you focused on the things that aren’t going well or the things that are? Are you focused on your lack of money or the fact that you have enough for food, shelter, transportation, entertainment and clothing?

A great way to shift your attention if you feel it wandering to things you don’t like it to make a list of 10 things that are going well for you or things that you like about something.

Recently I was having trouble appreciating someone I’m working on a project with. I made a list of 10 traits that I admired about him and it completely changed my way of approaching him. Instead of feeling like he was a problem, I realized he was a great asset.

Moving your attention to a positive mode will open doors of opportunity that you can’t even imagine yet! Give it a shot and let me know what you think.

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Article Tags: marketing, motivation, sales, sales tips, small business



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