Pay Attention:
Asserting Your Consciousness and Maintaining a Laser-Like Focus on Success

Nathaniel Brandon defines consciousness as:

"Living consciously is a state of being mentally active rather than passive. It is the ability to look at the world through fresh eyes. It is intelligence taking joy in its own function. Living consciously is seeking to be aware of everything that bears on our interests, actions, values, purposes, and goals. It is the willingness to confront facts, pleasant or unpleasant. It is the desire to discover our mistakes and correct them. Within the range of our interests and concerns, it is the quest to keep expanding our awareness and understanding, both of the world external to self and of the world within. It is respect for reality and respect for the distinction between the real and the unreal. It is the commitment to see what we see and know what we know. It is recognition that the act of dismissing reality is the root of all evil." (The Art of Living Consciously: The Power of Awareness to Transform Everyday Life, A Fireside Book: Simon & Schuster, 1997, p. 11)

• Be mentally active, not passive.
• Seek to look at the world around you with new eyes: constantly seek a fresh perspective.
• Be aware of anything and everything that may affect your outcomes: your intentions, your actions, your values and your beliefs.
• Face facts-especially ones that make you feel uncomfortable.
• Learn from your mistakes.
• Better yet, learn from the mistakes of others.
• Expand the field of your awareness, internally and externally.
• Ask yourself:
  • What might you be seeing that you are choosing not to see?
  • What is being said that you are choosing not to listen to?
  • What do you know that you are pretending not to know?
• Stay awake.
• Think, concentrate, ponder, consider, reflect…THEN ACT!

• What is the outcome of this project? Focus.
• What is the outcome of this conversation? Focus.
• What are the outcomes for this particular juncture in your career path? Focus.
• What is the overall outcome of your career? Focus.
• Before you sit down in that meeting, what are the outcomes and how will you know when you have attained them? Focus.
• What is the outcome of this particular investment, of that particular expenditure? Focus.
• What results do you wish to achieve by Friday of this week? Focus.
• What is the outcome of your day off, your holiday, or your time with loved ones? Focus.
• What "impossible" things do you intend to accomplish by the end of your life? Focus.
• What is the goal, the outcome, the results…what is the point of it all? Focus.
• What do you want? What is missing? What are you going to do about it? Focus.