attention

life offered abundance of concerns to which you can give your attention. a significant part of living consciously includes deciding what is deserving of your attention and to what extent as well as deciding what isn't deserving of your attention.生活中有太多要我们关心的，消耗着我们的注意力, 有意识的生活是有意义的，包括什么值得注意，值多少你的注意力。

Attention Worthiness注意力价值

How do you decide what's worthy of your attention and what isn't? let's consider some potential concerns.你是怎么决定什么值得 什么不值你的注意力？让我们考虑些潜在的担心。

on a scale of 1-3,make a quick rating of how attention-worthy each concern for you (see list below).为下列每个关心事项做个1-3分的注意力价值评估

1=unworthy of your attention不值得注意

2=somewhat worthy of your attention有点值

3=very worthy of your attention非常值

Here's the list .these are no particular order ,and it's not a complete list. it's  just a list to get you thinking.这个清单没有特定顺序且不是个完整清单只是抛砖引玉。

"it depends " is a perfectly reasonable answer if you feel your rating  would depend on situation or circumstances . If  that's your answer , see if you can gain clarity about how the situation would  affect your answer.若你的打分取决于形势或环境，“这取决于”是个合理的回答，看看你的回答是否能阐明形势是如何影响你的答案的。

your favorite TV show你喜欢的电视节目

astrophysics天体物理学

government政府

national/ global news国际新闻

local news本地新闻

your neighborhood 邻居

your home 家庭

your job工作

your income收入

your best friend密友

your boss老板

your parents父母

your family亲属

the economy经济形势

Facebook社交网站

productivity生产率

your nighttime dreams夜梦

your goals目标

literature文学作品

poetry诗歌

movies电影

porn色情片

gossip about people you know熟人的闲言碎语

email邮件

Twiter

the latest software新版软件

income taxes所得税

your net worth净资产

your weight体重

your physical appearances身体状态

your wardrobe 衣橱

primary relationship partner伴侣

meditation冥想

physical exercise体育锻炼

reading non-fiction阅读非虚构作品

music音乐

art艺术

travel旅行

fine dining大餐

cooking烹饪

smoking吸烟

doing drugs嗑药

pharmaceuticals医药

healthy eating健康餐

forming positive habits养成好习惯

overcoming addictions克服毛病

making money挣钱

protecting the environment保护环境

cleaning清洁

being organized有组织

personal hygiene个人卫生

dating约会

going to bars or night clubs酒吧夜店

theater剧院

dancing舞蹈

sex性爱

marriage婚姻

having kids生小孩

parenting养育小孩

law法律

mathematics数学

medicine医学

biology生物学

science科学

chemistry化学

physics物理

manufacturing制造业

mining采矿业

stocks股票

real estate房地产

investing投资

farming农业

coffee咖啡

geography地理

learning other languages外语

writing写作

internet marketing网络营销

philosophy哲学

metaphysics玄学

video games电游

gambling赌博

technology技术

computer programming计算机程序

entertainment娱乐

education教育

national debt国债

the military军事

personal growth个人成长

psychic development灵修

your emotions情绪

being in nature本性

developing new skills拓展新技能

science fiction科幻

your next promotion晋升

public speaking演讲

attending conferences开会

you can print out this list and  jot down a numerical rating  for each item, or you simply say each rating aloud as you read it online. feel free to add your  own items  too--- anything  you'd like to include is fair game. take your time as you do this . don't necessarily go with your initial impulse rating for each item. pause for a moment and think. how do you know if an item is worthy of your attention or not? what makes one item worthy and another unworthy? push yourself to come up with a reason to justify each rating . this is a learning exercise to help you discover what matters most to you and why.你可以把这清单打印出来给每项打分或者大声说出你的评分你也可以自由增减你自己的项目。花点时间做这个，不必依照原始冲动，停下来思考一下。那事是否值得你花费注意力？什么决定了一个事项值或不值？促使自己想出理由证明你的打分合理。这个学习和锻炼会帮你发现什么对你最重要及为什么？

Precious Attention珍贵的注意力

Notice what if you want to, choose to give your attention to anything you desire. If you want to focus on your income, you can do that. If you  want to give some attention to environment, a fiction  book , or your girlfriend, you can do these things too.留心如果你想要......会怎样？选择关注你的欲望，若你关注你的收入，环境，虚构书籍，女朋友，你都可以投入注意力。

Notice that  in the absence of such choices,  your attention will be pulled towards something  by default. If you don't  make  a conscious choice here ,someone else will decide for you. it may be your boss, a family member, an advertiser,  a collective social influence , or someone or something else ,but it won't be something of your  deliberate choosing.留心在选择时注意力缺失，如果你不是有意识的选择，你的注意力将被默认地某物消耗。你不是有意思的做选择即将有其他人替你做决定，可能会是你老板，你家人，广告，集体社会影响，又或者是别的某人某事，反正不再是你真正意愿的选择了。

when you don't make these choices yourself, you fall back into unconscious living, and generally speaking, your result will suffer for it. such unconscious results are usually quite poor compared to the results you can get from living consciously. 当你不是自己做选择，将退行到无知生存，总而言之，你会自食其果，和有意思的生活相比无知的结局是可怜的。

And lastly, notice that attention is a very limited resource. you don't have an infinite attention  capacity.you can only give your attention to one item--or at most, a few items-at a time. attention should be viewed  as a precious resource, something you invest carefully and thoughtfully. you don't have much of it to spread around, so don't let it go to waste.最后留心注意力是非常有限的资源，同一时间只能注意一项最多几项事物，注意力应被视作珍贵资源，你仔细深思投资的东西，你没有太多注意力四处铺展，所以别浪费。

Where is your attention going?你的注意力去哪了？

now that you've given some thought to what's worthy of your attention, it's  a good idea to  make a list of what's actually captureing your attention.既然你已经对什么值得注意付出了些许思考，最好制个清单看看什么占据了你的注意力

I sugest that you set aside a full day or two for attention capture. you can do this very easily.get a blank piece of paper, and each time something new catches your attention that isn't already written down, add it to your paper.我建议你拿出1-2天捕捉注意力消耗，这很简单，用一张白纸每次还未写下的新事物吸引你的注意力时，添加到纸上。

don't worry about tracking how much time you attend to each item.just make a complete list that reflects the variety of thoughts and activities  that captured your attention throughout the day.别急着追踪每个事项具体消耗多少时间，一天中有哪些占据你注意力的思想和行动，做个完整的清单涵盖所有类别。

at the end of the day,your list may look something like this:一天下来，你的清单可能是这样

feeling I should get out of bed earlier感觉应该早点起床

wanting to lose weight想要减肥

wanting to eat heathier想吃的更健康

figuring out what to eat想出要吃什么

web surfing上网

email

working on project A做项目A

worrying about money担心钱

thinking about the weekend考虑周末安排

talking with my partner about something trivial和搭档聊点琐事

feeling stressed觉得有压力

driving to work开车去上班

think about bills考虑账单

attending a meeting开会

mostly zoning out走神

reading work-related items看看工作相关的东西

watching TV看电视

...

etc.等等

when you have a pretty good representation of your attention-grabbing concerns, whether it takes you a few hours or a few days to complete the list, go ahead and give  each item on your list a 1-3 rating like you did earlier. of all  the items that  captured some of your attention ,which ones were truly worthy of it?当对抓取你注意力的关心有了很好的表述时，也许会花费你几小时或几天来完成这个清单。开始并给每个事项评分，所有这些消耗你注意力的事项是否真的值得？

what do you notice about this? are you given your attention to items that are worthy of you? or is  your attention being  drained away  by trivialities? which  items  weren't on your list that should have been?于此你会注意什么？你把注意力给了那些值得你注意的事了吗？还是你的注意力被琐事耗尽？有哪些本该注意的却忽略了？

Determining Attention Worthiness确定注意力价值

How do you know if an item is worthy of your attention or not? how can you separate the important from the irrelevant?如何知道一个事项是否值得你注意？又如何区分重要的和无关的呢？

here are some criteria to consider:这有些标准 可供参考：

consequences后果

what are consequences of  giving an item your attention vs. withholding your attention?对比给或不给你的注意力有什么后果？

if there's little difference either way  or if the overall consequences are unimportant, it's fair to say that the item isn't worthy  of your attention.如果各种方法间没什么大不同或者结果都不重要，那么这事不值得你花注意力。

when it comes understanding  consequences, you must own your assessment  in this area. don't blindly subscribe to someone else's assessment of  the importance of a particular concern.当要了解后果时，在这领域你必须有 自己的评估，重要事项不要盲目地参阅别人的评价。

for example,I have never voted in my political election. I have never registered to vote. certain social pressures may try to get me to believe that nothing is my civic duty and  that I'd be a bad person not to vote, but I say B.S. to  all of that. ultimately I have to make my own assessment of the importance of this action,  and my personal determination is that in the grand scheme of things, my individual vote is irrelevant  and statistically meaningless . calling it a "right" or a" privilege" seems more like marketing than truth to me. so I do not vote...ever. voting is a waste of time.例如，我从不为政治选举投票，也不去注册投票，一些社会压力可以让我相信不投票是不尽公民义务，是坏人。我说那都是胡说，最终我会对活动的重要性有自己的评估。我个人确定那是个大阴谋，我个人的投票与结果无关是没有统计意义的，所谓的权利或特权看起来更像市场营销，所以我从不投票，那是浪费时间。

Not voting doesn't mean  I don't care  about  world affairs. of course I care. However, there  are  more intelligent opinions available to create change than  the wasted effort of filling out a ballot.

whether I vote or don't vote, the consequences are negligible either way.as an activity, voting is unworthy of my attention .不投票不意味我不关心国家大事，我当然关心，无论如何有很多可供选择明智观点比填选票更能创造改变。

you are free to disagree with me of course, if you think voting is a good use of your attention, by all means continue the practice. my point is that you cannot blindly accept social programming when it comes to determining what is or isn't important to you. you have to make that determination for yourself.如果你认为投票能很好利用你的注意力，你当然可以不同意我。务必要持续练习。我的意思是当需要决定对你来说什么是重要的什么又不重要的时候不要盲目接受社会程序，必须做出自己的决定。

Attention-worthy tasks show a pattern of having impactful consequences  if you focus on them. Giving them attention makes a noticeable difference. if, however, you squander your attention on unworthy items, your results will be negligible or negative.聚焦注意力价值任务，将表现出对后果的深远影响。于此投入注意力可取得显著进展。然而你若浪费你的注意力在无价值的东西上你的所得将是微不足道的或负面的。

control控制

in addition to consequences, also consider the degree of control you have over a particular concern.除结果外还要考虑对某个特关心的定控制程度。

if by giving your attention  to a certain item, you have the ability to influence it in a meaningful way, then it's more attention-worthy than an item that you cannot influence much.关注那些你能真正影响的东西

For example, through my writing, I'm able to exert a lot of influence  over people's results when it comes to personal growth. this an area where I  have a lot of control. I can decide  which topics to write about  and how to express key points. since I've been doing  this for many years, I can see my efforts have a positive impact. I can nudge people towards making more conscious choices. every time  I post a new article, it creates many ripples.例如通过写作我可以影响人们的个人成长，这是我能控制的领域，我可以决定写作主题和如何表达要点。这是我多年努力耕耘所得，我能推动人们做更有意识的选择，每次我发布新文章都有很多连锁反应。

On the other hand, I don't have much control over the local politics in Las Vegas. I could give that subject a lot of attention,  but I'm not currently in a position to have much impact there. so keeping up with  local politics isn't a good use of my time, relatively speaking, consequently, I largely ignore local politics, so I can focus other areas where I can make a more difference  with less effort .this choice helps me be more efficient.另一方面我对拉斯维加斯本地政治缺乏影响力，我可以给项目投入很多精力，但没什么影响所以参与本地政治对我的时间是浪费。相对来说以至 我大多忽视本地政治从而关注那些用较少努力取得更多不同的领域，如此选择帮我提高效率。

If you give your attention to items you can't control, you 're essentially wasting your time. It's more intelligent to focus  on what you can control and influence. then your influence will expand over time, and your power will increase.若你对无法控制的东西投入注意力，那基本上是浪费你的时间，关注你可以控制和影响的东西会更明智，随着时间流逝你的影响力扩张，你的力量会随之增长。

Opportunity Cost机会成本

the attention-worthiness of any particular concern is relative to other items you could be choosing instead.特定关心的注意力价值是相较你的选择的东西的其他替代性物而言的。

Will watch TV or read a book? Will you  go on a date or work on your internet business? will you get up early and exercise or sleep in late?看电视还是看书？约会还是开网店？早锻炼还是睡懒觉？

whenever you give your attention to one concern, it means  you're withholding your attention from all other possible concerns.  this entails a hidden cost of  the potential value of the items you've declined to pursue.无论何时关注某物就意味着从其他事上收回注意力，这牵涉减少追求的那个东西的潜在价值的隐藏成本。

If you had  used your time differently during the past 5 years, you could have an extra million  dollars in bank. another path  might have led you travel through dozens of different countries. and still another path  might have you  looking at  a very fit  and sculpted body in the mirror right now.要是你过去5年已经改变你的时间用法，那么你早就有百万存款了，或者已经游历一打不同国家了，又或有雕塑般的身材比如今镜中的样子更健康。

are you happy with the path you're current following? do you feel you've been giving your attention to thoughts and activities that are truly worthy of you? are the opportunities that you've declined to pursue of lesser value  than  the ones you did pursue? have you been turning down the good in order to pursue the best? or are you feeling disappointed with yourself right now?如果你当下的生活范式让你感到幸福，你觉得 正在付出注意力的东西真的值得你如此吗？你所追求的比你放弃的更有价值吗？

Attention=Investment注意力就是投资

think of your attention as an investment. for each unit of time you invest, you're generating certain results.把每个单位时间作为投资来考虑你的注意力，你在生产一个确定的成绩。

some investment yield positive returns. others yield zero or negative  returns.有的投资会收获积极回报，有的投资回报是零或亏损。

Don't expect to be right  off the bat. this is a growth process that plays out  over many years.to live more consciously, keep withdrawing your attention from  trivial concerns, and redirect towards those areas  where you can have a stronger and positive impact.别寄望一蹴而就，这是个历时多年才能完成的成长流程。过有意识的生活保持从琐事上收回注意力改投到那些有更强更积极影响的领域。

For example, I spent a lot of time during my 20s creating and publishing video games. 例如20多岁时我花很多时间创作出版电子游戏。

Eventually I pulled my attention away from that field  and redirected it to personal development. shifting  my attention thusly has allowed me to have a stronger and more positive impact, and I also reap greater rewards from creating and delivering more value to others.最终我离开那个领域转而关注个人成长。正是如此转换注意力使我有了更强更积极的影响，并且我也因为了他人t创造和提供了更多价值而收获更大回报。

making this kinds of shifts can be a real challenge. don't expect the journey to be easy. many people remain addicted  to trivialities  all the way to their graves. often they can't get past the social conditioning  that tells them they should care about things that simply don't matter. don't fall into that trap.做这样转换是真正的挑战，别期望是轻松之旅，许多人到死还纠缠于琐事他们常无法超越社交条件，那告诉他们应该关心那些简直和他们无关的事，别再落入陷阱。

Conscious Attention有意识的注意力

To live consciously, you must be the one to clarify and decide what matter most to you , and then you must discipline yourself to focus your attention on those items  by deliberately.过有意识的人生，必须成为能澄清并决定关乎于你最要紧的是什么，继而训练自己故意将注意力聚焦于其上。

withdrawing your attention from lesser concerns. don't expect life to do this for you. don't  expect others  to help you much. And never, never whine that you don't know  what to do. It's your  job to figure it out: the  task sits  squarely on your shoulders. To complain that it's  too burdensome will only make it seem harder.  It's Okay to make mistakes as you figure this out. you don't need to concoct a  grand plan in advance, so don't use the lack of one  as an excuse for procrastination. simply to the best you can in each moment, and you can continue upgrade  your choices as you go along. Keep pushing yourself  to drop low-value activities, and replace them with higher value ones. drop TV and read non-fiction instead. dump the gossip-addicted  friend who does nothing for you intellectually, and replace her with a more intelligent and resourceful friend. quit the cigarettes, and shift that slice of your attention  and your budget  to becoming  a fitness maven. if you stil insist on using the "I don't know what to do", excuse, then drop to the floor and do pushing-ups. I suspect your brain will come up with a few ideas  very shortly.从担心中收回你的注意力，别期望生活为你代劳，更别幻想他人帮你太多，永远不要发牢骚说你不知道该怎么办。这是你的活儿，解决它，它公平地落在你肩上，抱怨担子太重，除了看起来更艰难于事无补。犯点错误没什么，你无须提前杜撰一个宏伟的计划别用缺什么来做拖延的借口。只是每次尽力做到最好可以沿途继续升级你的选择，持续推动你自己甩掉低价值活动，并用更高价值的活动替换它放弃看电视和虚构作品 远离有八卦瘾的朋友她对你的智商毫无补益，换成更睿智更有资源的朋友，戒掉香烟，转化那点注意力和财力成为健身行家，若你仍用不知道该怎么做当借口，马上趴地上作俯卧撑我怀疑你脑中会有很值的想法的。

Very often when you reduce  the time wastes by dropping  low-value relationships and activities inform your life. your understanding about what really matters to you will skyrocket. time wastes will  invariably fog your vision . get rid of them as quickly as you can,and clarity will return.you will not miss the time wasters, even if you feel you're addicted to them now.通过削减低价值活动会减少时间的浪费。

don't let the difficulty of the task  become an excuse for laziness. keep pushing yourself to more attention-worthy activities  while dropping trivialities from your life, and you'll find that your life becomes something quite special---rich in meaning and purpose. the alternative is life of increasing  disappointment and regret.别让任务的难度成为懒惰的借口，生活中保持推进用高价值活动替换 低价值活动，你将发现生活在变的特别，不断增加失望和遗憾的生活和富有意义和使命的生活二选一吧。

By Steve Pavlina作者：斯蒂夫帕夫利纳

译者玉莲子

2017/07/3

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