Pay Attention
Like most children, I must have been told to pay attention more times than I can remember, whether in school, at home or on the playground. Not doing so could lead to missed opportunities, as well as unnecessary incidents and accidents.
However, the need to pay attention does not stop in childhood; it goes well into adulthood. Five years ago, I got my middle right finger stuck in my father’s garage door, mainly because I was not paying full attention to the task. While talking on the phone to my sister, I attempted to close the garage door manually as I had opened it to spring the car. I had no idea my three centre fingers were in harm’s way. Thankfully I managed to rescue the index and ring finger before the door came down on them but not the lovely slim middle finger.
Lesson learned, right? Apparently not. Though I learned a lot about myself that kept me going until the fire department arrived and beyond, I committed a similar faux paus about nine weeks ago. This time while not paying attention, I broke my fourth right toe.
While rushing, okay nearly running down the stairs in my house, I banged my sock covered foot against a glass stair rail which had a bit of hardwood on it too. Ouch! The memories flooded in of being stuck in the garage door, as did the pain. Befuddled I hobbled the rest of the way downstairs to tell Paul and our cleaner that I had injured my toe.
When I removed the sock, it was clear that I had broken it, dislocated it at an angle. My mind chided and raced, asking the same questions it likely did years ago. One of them: why weren’t you paying attention. This did not need to happen.
Of course, accidents happen and some of them, to no fault of our own. I am a pretty focused driver for example. Something about being behind the wheel of a car says pay attention but for several other activities, I lose my focus. And I am sure I am not the only one, talking and texting while doing something else, running downstairs, thinking about something that has nothing to do with a matter at hand and so on.
Wonder why? Some blame it on ageing. Okay, so I am ageing but I won’t claim that one—plenty of folks older than me have a very good attention span while others younger than me, have the attention span of a gnat. You know who you are. Others say it could be an illness or just a result of being naturally scatterbrained. I am not claiming those either. Make no mistake about it, I do understand that paying attention is not within everyone’s gift for a number or reasons. But for several of us, it is.
Whether looking at our phone while at church, at dinner or in meeting or thinking about what we are going to wear while taking an exam or doing Wordle for that matter, it will cost us, if only the daily word.
To this end, I am offering three tips for paying attention:
- Adopt some boundaries! Don’t do two or three things at once. Hard work but achievable.
- Kick those bad habits! After all, they are far more attention seeking than good habits.
- Slow Down! Rushing through life stalls life. Nine weeks on and I still can’t wear my lovely shoes.
Anyhow, thankfully, my accidents, though painful, have both been minor inconveniences at the most and not caused any long-term impacts on my health. And that is worth paying attention to.
