As of 2012 the average attention span in 2012 was 8 seconds according to the Associated Press. That is 3 seconds less than reported in 2000 – a 25% decline.
It is now official that our attention span is LESS than the attention span of a goldfish!
I heard this statistic while listening to Sally Hogshead talk about the subject of Fascination and how we can capture that limited attention span. While as a business owner I continue to work hard to learn how to capture people’s attention so I have the opportunity to actually make a difference with them, I couldn’t help but think about the implications of this alarming statistic for my life.
We are bombarded daily with a staggering amount of information. If I printed my daily e-mails for a month I would probably be classified as a hoarder. Sure there are the spammers, but most of that information I have invited into my inbox in one way or another. There is literally a stack of books on my nightstand (and in my Kindle reader) that seems to grow much faster than it shrinks. [click to continue...]
Have you ever been touched deeply by someone you barely knew?
On May 1, 2013 a man named Wally Collins passed away. A few short years ago I sang at his wedding as he married one of the people I hold most dear, Mary McClean. They shared a brief, but beautiful love. It was moving to witness. Wally fought hard to stay on this earth to be with Mary and his family as long as possible. He defied the odds over and over right until the end.
As I sat down on Sunday to prepare the songs his family had asked me to sing at his funeral, a very rare thing happened. You see long ago I played in the occasional coffee house and have even written a few songs. The last time I was that inspired to write a song was 13 years ago when my daughter was born. This time I literally had to dust off my guitar to prepare, and as I did inspiration struck. Within an hour a new song poured out of me.
I had known Wally for only 4 of his 89 years. He had been quite ill through most of that time which is why I say I barely knew him. Yet somehow he had touched my life deeply. [click to continue...]
There are a lot of things that “sound great in theory”. Yet knowing the theory doesn’t always tell you how to implement the theory in real life.
Why does there so often seem to be such a big gap between theory and action?
I’ll suggest it is because to apply the theory we have to first change the way we think. Just because a concept makes sense to us intellectually, doesn’t mean we have embraced the new thinking or beliefs and integrated them into our mindset.
Your thoughts, which are always based on your personal context, mental models, beliefs, etc., are the source of all of your actions. Change the way you think and you will change the way you act.
It makes sense, doesn’t it? Ironically, if I just stop there this concept easily become just another one of those things that “sounds great in theory”.
The only way it won’t is to take action to test it out. It is only when you take action that you can begin to observe the gap between what you think you know and understand and what you actually know. [click to continue...]
