MAP Strategic Wealth Advisors

Takeaways:

In this piece, Chris Hayes argues that almost every aspect of human life is being reoriented around the pursuit of attention, making it the most important resource on earth.

In the modern age, the ability to command attention outweighs any other in terms of building a business or a platform. The market for attention has become one of the most competitive and innovative in history.

Attention is the essence of consciousness, yet it can be seized from us before we even realize it—stolen by a sudden noise or a flashing light. As competition for our focus intensifies, more aggressive tactics emerge, turning our daily environments (both in real life and in digital spaces) into overstimulating arenas akin to casino floors.

Why? Because before you can persuade, you must first capture attention. Anyone from great showmen to great salespeople, marketers, advertisers, and so many more have all used the power of attention to accrue wealth and power. Thus– In today’s world, public discourse, commerce, social life, and even parenting have become battles for attention—and we’re all feeling the fatigue.

Knowing that the world is being reshaped around the pursuit of human attention forces the question: What do we want to pay attention to? If we didn’t have all the technologies and corporations vying for our attention, if our attention wasn’t being commodified and extracted, what would we affirmatively choose to pay attention to?

Your answer to this question should be a call to action. Hayes argues that understanding and addressing the gap between the attention demanded of us and the areas we want to which we want to pay attention is massively important. If we don’t fight to direct our attention to the things we care about, there is evidence that we lose our connection to them.

“We don’t have to give in to the constant external demands for our attention,” he says. We must use every tool and strategy imaginable to wrest back our will, to create a world in which we point our attention where we want it to go.

From Chris Hayes at The Atlantic:
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Note: At the time of this posting The Atlantic offers five free article views per month.

Six takeaways:

Excellence is almost universally coveted and valued. While no two paths to excellence are the same, putting these six steps into practice will help you along the journey:

1. Understand that worthy pursuits carry a price tag: true excellence requires a level of focus and dedication that may come at the cost of diligent attention to other parts of your life. Maintaining a balanced life is important, though excellence may require skewing time/attention in one particular direction temporarily. It is important to acknowledge that, because that allows you to make corrections.
2. Get angry with your own mediocrity: The article is not calling its readers mediocre- it is just saying that making mediocrity the enemy pushes us to maximize our talents, energies, and tenacity as we pursue improvement. “Excellence trumps mediocrity when we exhaust our storehouse of talents,” Arcement writes.
3. Be willing to be disciplined: discipline provides momentum, and helps us avoid the distractions that chip away at achievement of our goals. Prolonged discipline makes us stubborn and tenacious in our pursuit of excellence. To eschew discipline is to settle for less than what is possible.
4. Don’t settle on only making use of a small part of your abilities: We cannot control the circumstances of our birth, or the set of innate characteristics we are blessed with. We can control the level of effort we put in to maximize the utility of these things. By being strong-willed, dedicated, and honest about your strengths, you can maximize your own qualities and leverage them in your pursuit of excellence.
5. Remove the word “impossible” from your vocabulary: The first step in achieving anything is believing that it is possible. To think of something as impossible is to completely dismiss any chance of it happening. A simple mental switch of rooting out this all-too-pervasive word from one’s vocabulary and mind opens up a world of possibility.
6. Be willing to step up your personal initiative: the most powerful motivation comes from within. Allowing external factors deter you is the easiest thing to do. Remembering that your own engine is the one that powers you is important in becoming the best version of yourself.

By Billy Arcement for The Business Journals
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Five takeaways:

Gretchen Rubin is a writer who explores happiness and success. After a decade of researching the components of human happiness, she noticed that she had overlooked the role of the body in making us feel more connected, less stressed, and more alive.

By intentionally channeling each of the five senses, Rubin found new and untapped sources of happiness. Here are her five tips for bringing this benefit into your own life:

1. Need a burst of energy and cheer? Use your sense of smell.
   The introduction of scents can provide an instant mood boost, heighten awareness, and bring you into the present moment. Everyday smells—like fresh towels or fine wood—can be uplifting. Specific scents, such as eucalyptus, may transport you to a meaningful past experience.
2. Stressed out? Use your sense of touch.
   Items like fidget spinners and soft blankets offer a soothing effect and can reduce stress immensely. This is why they are often used in palliative and pediatric healthcare settings. Rubin, before public speaking events, finds comfort in a single ritual: holding a pen.
3. Feeling distracted and unproductive? Use your sense of sound.
   The more you can control your surroundings, the less likely you are to be bothered by errant noises. Some may prefer the silence of a library; others might feel more concentrated or at peace amid the bustle of a coffee shop. Be intentional about creating an auditory environment that fits your preferences– it will build a more sustained feeling of comfort and attentiveness.
4. Need a creative spark? Use your sense of sight.
   Be intentional about noticing the small visual details around you. By setting intentional “noticing” challenges—like spotting a certain color while on a walk, or studying the details of old buildings—you can train yourself to see beauty and whimsy in everyday surroundings. The world is full of hidden patterns and colors. Noticing them enhances our sense of creativity and connection.
5. Want to feel closer to other people? Use your sense of taste.
   Enjoying unique foods and flavors with other people is one of the most ancient and universal human customs. So: eat with others. Rubin notes how invigorating it was when a recent gathering of friends tried to identify the five basic tastes of sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami in the food they were eating– and how it bonded the group.

By Gretchen Rubin for CNBC
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Takeaways:

A 2024 study analyzing 103 elephant populations from Tanzania southward—the most comprehensive of its kind—reveals that conservation efforts have successfully halted the decline of savannah elephants in southern Africa over the past 25 years. By 2020, their population had rebounded to 290,000, matching the numbers recorded in 1995.

In 2019, International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) launched the Room to Roam initiative, aiming to secure and connect 12 critical landscapes, each home to at least 10,000 elephants.

Researchers found that the “core-buffer model” – creating large, well-connected areas/habitats, rather than confined protective parks, helps sustain elephant populations. Though they are less protected, these open reserves & wildlife corridors allow elephants to migrate when core areas are overcrowded or threatened by poaching or environmental changes.

Previously, elephants had been confined to “fortress parks” designed to protect them from poachers and other threats. But though these parks may be large, they rarely offer the natural flexibility and variance that elephants require to thrive. Instead, researchers have begun connecting parks and creating corridors that allow elephants to follow natural migration patterns.

Anti-poaching efforts have also stepped up dramatically– a 2019 agreement by multiple philanthropies and government agencies saw rangers equipped with a base, enforcement vehicles, a canine unit and drone support. There hasn’t been a single incident of illegal poaching targeting elephants in Hwange National Park since the agreement.

The “buffer” aspect of the “core-buffer” model is the institution of regulated buffer zones between the outer boundaries of wildlife reserves and human population areas. Elephants will often travel into these areas as part of their natural movements, and human interaction is heavily regulated.

The improvement seen in recent years is the result of 20 years of research on population dynamics of elephant clusters, growth rates, genetic makeup and population distribution. IFAW is coordinating with governments, communities and other key landscape actors to restore and set aside these areas for elephant conservation– and will continue to assess ongoing threats against elephant populations.

It takes individuals to do the collective work of reversing 100 years of negative population growth. The scale of human effort and investment that has gone into researching, planning, executing, and sustaining this progress is an inspiring example of our power to affect change.

You can learn more about IFAW’s work in Africa at their website.

By Veronika Perková for Reasons to be Cheerful
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