Asset
ASSET = a useful or valuable quality; a valuable item that is owned
Image: Heather Williams, H.W.,M.
QUESTION: Are you aware that your ATTENTION is your most valuable ASSET?
STORY: Today our world is filled with technology and our attention is very much attracted (even addicted) to our tech devices. Our TVs, cell phones & computers blast our attention constantly with emails, texts, advertisements and “breaking news alerts”. Now, let’s explore - what is our ATTENTION? Well, our attention is the ability of our mind to focus, to concentrate, to observe and to respond to the world around us and to the world within us. We all are born with a mind. But do we control our mind OR do with technology do we give control to our devices? Today we live in what Chris Hayes describes as the ATTENTION AGE. His book, published in 2025, is titled: The Siren’s Call - How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource. I have learned that it takes WORK to take charge of our most valuable asset, our attention. We all must become more aware of our most valuable ASSET: OUR ATTENTION! Drawing has been a way for me to slow down, relax, observe and draw the world around me without naming, labeling or judging what I observe. Drawing opens me to my deeper, Innate True Self. Every single human being has an Innate True Self that is always within us. Learn more at my drawing class: https://www.drawingtogether.com/drawing-classes
QUOTES
“My experience is what I agree to attend to.” ~ William James
“Attention is the substance of life. Every moment we are awake we are paying attention to something.” ~ Chris Hayes
“I lament about the new modern family gathering, silent around the fire, each individual with his head buried in his favorite magazine.” Illustrator Randall Munroe - 1907
“Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things.” ~ Henry David Thoreau - 1845
“There’s no question that frictionless, instant global communication acts as an accelerant.” ~ Chris Hayes
“The most important resource - our attention - is also the very thing that makes us human. Unlike land, coal or capital, which exist outside of us, the chief resource of this age is embedded in our psyches. Extracting it requires cracking into our minds.“ ~ Chris Hayes
EXERCISE
STOP.
Relax.
Sit quietly.
Slow down.
Assume an erect posture.
Sense the breath.
Listen to the flow of energy through your body for 1 minute.
When ready, get your pen and paper and write words or draw lines expressing what your attention is observing right now.
Move forward into your new day feeling the value of your attention.