Focus, flow and a quiet act of rebellion
As a coach, coaching supervisor and coach trainer, I often find myself thinking about attention. It’s central to what I do and what makes coaching so powerful and it’s sometimes a topic people bring to coaching: feeling overwhelmed, distracted, unable to settle and focus.
I chanced upon Johann Hari’s book, Stolen Focus earlier this year and it resonated strongly. The book is an exploration of how we cultivate focus, why we need it, how our environment and our political and economic systems affect it, what threatens it and how we can intentionally restore focus. I’ve felt for a long time that when we offer attention to others, we are sharing a profound and powerful gift.
Digital detox
At the start of the book, Hari takes himself away on a 3-month digital detox, a luxury he admits not accessible to most of us. While he’s away, he charts what happens to his attention when he removes the internet from his life – no social media, Google searches, news notifications, online chats and email. As I write this a few months after finishing the book, I’m noticing my own response to the idea of letting go of all that stuff (mostly relief, freedom, lightness) as well as an unfathomable pull towards staying connected to the things I know have such a negative impact on my focus and presence, my health and my peace.
Spending time outdoors and particularly in nature is the perfect antidote to screen time and distraction, to be present in an environment which doesn’t compete for our attention but helps generate it.
What do you notice about your own response to the thought of a digital detox? What is this telling you?
A systemic lens for attention
Throughout the book, Hari focuses on the systems and conditions which impact our attention and suggests that when we struggle to be present and retain focus, it’s often not because we don’t have enough self-discipline or our time management is poor or we procrastinate too much (though these are sometimes how my coachees view the reasons for their overwhelm). He argues the challenges to our concentration and our ability to be present come largely from the systems that profit from our distraction, that hijack our brain chemistry and erode the conditions we need for presence, connection and thought. Hari suggests that at some point, our attention stopped being something we give and became something that was taken.
The silent impact of constant noise
There are many stories in Hari’s book that struck me, some disturbing, most inspiring.
He speaks with Tristan Harris, a former Google design ethicist, who admits that even he, someone who knows exactly how the algorithms are built to manipulate attention, struggles to put down his phone; even the people designing the systems designed to keep us hooked into content (and to develop their profits) can’t resist them. ‘It’s not your fault you can’t focus. It’s by design. Your distraction is their fuel’, states Hari.
Attention has been commodified, argues Hari. Companies are financially rewarded when we’re distracted, when we stay on platforms longer, click more adverts, keep scrolling. The system wasn’t built for human flourishing, it was built for engagement metrics and generation profit.
Tech as a tool, not a trap
Of course, not all technology is maleficent and it would be wrong to demonise the whole industry, throwing the baby out with the bath water. Like many, I use digital tools to run my business, and I recognise that technology can absolutely support us when it’s used mindfully. As Hari says, there’s a difference between using technology and being used by it. Being intentional about our relationship with technology can help us make choices that help us regain our focus and therefore our ability to be present, to think, to engage, support others and be happy.
When do you feel most connected to yourself? What helps you stay there?
Hari interviews Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi whose psychological research into ‘flow states’ suggests that flow is linked to high performance, wellbeing, and positive development and that flow is elusive without attention.
Imagine you are engaged in creating a piece of art or walking in nature or doing something, which for you, creates a state of being entirely focused and engaged in the present moment, so much so that time disappears. Csikszentmihalyi identified certain conditions required for accessing a flow state and focussed and purposeful attention is one of them. Without attention, there is no flow, without flow, we risk being able to perform well and live well. Attention it seems is central to the human condition and to our happiness overall.
Coaching as quiet resistance
In a busy world where social media channels constantly compete for our attention and where we run the risk of being sucked into evenings of doom scrolling and mindless distraction, coaching is deeply radical in its quietness.
We co-create spaces where people connect with their awareness, dig beneath the surface of what’s conscious and in doing so, create profound new knowledge. These are spaces, focused on being, noticing, thinking deeply, affecting change. There is no urgency, no distraction, no interruption. When we show up with presence and keep asking the questions, what difference can this quiet act of rebellion make?
If you would like to transform your attention, master the art of facilitating powerful conversations and support others to connect with their very best thinking, train with me to be a coach or find out more about my 1-1 coaching offers.
References
Hari, J. (2022). Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention – and How to Think Deeply Again. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper & Row.