- by Clay Cotton
So Why Aren't You Rich?
For years now we've pondered why some entrepreneurs succeed where others flounder. And the questions keep coming back, over and over again, "Do you need better tools, better ideas, better strategies, tactics and procedures?".
Of course you do...
So what do you do to correct this? You do all that you can to spot and acquire the skills and resources that can power your success and ease your load. But somehow, things often don't come together in a way that creates bottom-line results.
And then the internal questions get more personal. "Well, you've got access to superior tools and great ideas, so why aren't you rich? Where's the problem? What's WRONG with you?"
It's so easy to blame the tools, systems and strategies, but sooner or later, ya gotta admit that part of it might be a personal problem, like maybe you are a little "A.D.D.", Attention Deficit Disorder. D'ya think?
Attention Deficit?
Fact is, in today's world, we're ALL a bit A.D.D., aren't we? Science tells us that the human brain receives an input of over 4 billion sensory data bits a second, 875,000,000 of these bits from the eyes alone. That's each and every SECOND. Just from the senses...
The brain does an amazing job of filtering out the clutter so we can pay attention to what matters. But it's getting harder every day.
So far, in its evolutionary path, the human brain has never had such a load. And today, not only do we overload our senses with visual, auditory, kinesthetic, gustatory and olfactory input, but nowadays the CONCEPTUAL onslaught is unrelenting.
TV, radio, movies, printed text, ipods, videos, dvds, cds, podcasts, ebooks, websites, blogs, feeds, voip chats, forums, social media, instant messages, teleconferences, cell phones, gps - OMFG, this infoglut is overwhelming! Too MUCH access to too MANY concepts.
JEEZ, if you ain't scattered, then you ain't livin'. Look at Las Vegas, where the "action" is - America's "black hole" of attention. And we love it. With every sense on overload, we let go and flow with the chaos, because sometimes that's all ya CAN do. It's a orgy of distraction, for sure.
Focus: Running Your Own Brain
The problem with virtually unlimited access to stimulation is that today's world demands new and extraordinary focus on how we run our own brains and how we affect other brains. I maintain that in an info economy, the new "currency" is precious human attention, and we must be highly aware of attention patterns... Hence attentionomics: The study of human attention and interest.
For our purposes here, we can look at attention from two angles: Personal Attention and Target-Visitor Attention
1. Personal Attention - How do you manage the attention patterns in your own mind? Methinx, we had better be more aware of attention, especially our own attention, so as to better allocate, save, protect and invest it with poise, power and precision.
2. Target-Visitor Attention - How do you best capture, sustain and direct target-visitor attention? First, we must offer clear benefits (or potential benefits) at every "choice point" in a visitor's interaction. In an age of skepticism, we must hook them with an irresistible, yet believable appeal, and we must deliver value worthy of devotion. We must function as clear and stable beacons in a sea of chaos, frustration, confusuion, overwhelming info-glut, clutter, fear and uncertainty.
In this exploratory series of Clay's Attentionomics articles, we'll spotlight the roots of distraction and focus, of chaos and clarity, of wastage and utilization, all with an eye to improving our own, internal attentionomics and with an additional goal of better understanding and crafting the mindset and online experience of website visitors, precious our target-market, message recipients.
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Clay Cotton, "the pianoman who refused to sleep with Janis Joplin", offers free, wildass piano tracks at
http://www.cdbaby.com/claycotton and at
http://www.claycotton.com.
Clay's blog:
http://claycotton.mywebtop.com/post/app/blog/Clay's charitable work:
http://alterabilities.com Join Content Desk:
http://www.claycotton.com/1-cd-krewe
