The Sacred Economy of Focus
“Attention is the natural prayer of the soul.” – Simone Weil
Attention is a fundamental currency of human life. It quite literally lets us know where our priorities are in any given moment.
Our ability to direct and maintain attention under a variety of circumstances and situations is a fundamental skill that will benefit any and all aspects of not only human performance but human life.
Deficits in the ability to control attention can certainly limit our effectiveness, to say the least. Whether that's to glean information from a book we're reading or, perhaps even more importantly, information we are getting from our environment. That's true whether we are interacting with another person or group of people, a physical space, or something we are doing.
While the skill of attention is a large area of study for psychology and coaching, my hope is to give you my two cents on some of the big ideas around attention and how my experience with them may shed light on opportunities for practice that can enhance health, performance, and life.
What Is Attention
Think of attention like lighting in a room. It can be soft and ambient, gently aware of the whole space, or focused and precise, like a flashlight or spotlight. What we direct it toward becomes clear and actionable. What lies outside the beam gets blurred, delayed, or missed entirely.
There are two overarching systems through which attention operates:
Top-down attention is deliberate and goal-directed. It originates from the prefrontal cortex — the brain’s executive center — and it’s what allows us to read a book in a noisy room, complete a mission, or listen to a teammate under stress. It’s like turning the flashlight toward something specific because we decided it matters.
Bottom-up attention is reactive. It’s governed by older, survival-driven parts of the brain, like the amygdala. This system pulls attention automatically to what’s novel, loud, threatening, or emotionally charged. It grabs the flashlight out of your hands and points it at what it thinks is important — often before you’ve had time to think.
There is definitely more to attention than these two categories. Some other basic categories of attention are internal and external focus both with broad and narrow subcategories (Nideffer’s Attentional Theory).
Narrow Internal: Focused on breath, sensation, self-talk, motor control
Broad Internal: Scanning mental or physical state, strategy, emotional tone
Narrow External: Locked on a target, cue, opponent’s movement, task execution
Broad External: Situational awareness, field scan, group dynamics, environmental rhythm
Check out this article from the NFL Player’s Association all about concentration.
Effective attention is not just about focus — it’s about flexibility and control. The ability to move skillfully between these two systems, and to match the right mode of attention to the moment, is one of the core skills of performance, leadership, and being a human in the modern world.
Managing Bandwidth
Attention is finite. There is always something or somebody vying for our attention, and so it behooves us to have some system of management for this finite resource. That's probably not really new to anybody reading this, but it does help to have a reminder now and again — especially in a culture that has become remarkably good at commoditizing attention without consideration of the long-term effects of such an avenue of exploration.
Regardless, it is the responsibility of each and every individual to develop the skill of attention management. This is even more essential if you work in a profession where intense and prolonged focused attention are part and parcel of navigating the environment. I'm talking to you — military, first responders, and emergency medical folks.
Often, humans manage this resource by means of exogenous substance use. Caffeine, nicotine, and Adderall are all common substances used by people looking to modulate attentional resources. While these are highly effective at opening the nozzle on the hose in the short term, so to speak, in the long term they come with additional costs rather than additional savings. There is a time and place for the use of different substances to this effect, but it's not within the scope of this article. For another time, perhaps.
Instead, let's look at a couple of less expensive methods for managing bandwidth.
Get rid of bullshit. I'm being a bit curt here because, well, it's necessary. I'm sure everybody reading this has some sort of drag parachute on their attention that is interfering with their capacity to focus on things that matter. I know I do. Let's do a better job clearing out clutter — together.
Purpose-driven wandering. A while back I wrote an article about the idea of reverie. This is a state of daydreaming and attentional dispersal. The opposite of sustained attention. This is no less important for the balanced function of your brain and gives the parts that drive attention a bit of well-deserved respite. REVERIE EXPERIMENT
Practice giving attention. This one is obvious, so I put it last. Check out the types of attention above and think about where you might have the biggest opportunity for improvement. Then develop some practices around enhancing that gap. If you already have some that work for you, share them with the rest of us in the comments!
If you want more suggestions for performance environments, take a look at the article from the NFL Player's Association that I highlighted earlier in this article. There are some gems in there.
So I must learn to audit what I give attention to…
and reserve my prayer for worthy gods.
Effects on Relationships, Communication, and Leadership
Attention isn't just about personal performance outcomes, either. It's a valuable social currency that lets others know we are invested in them.
Children compete and misbehave for it. The way we get parental attention has a real effect on the way we interact with our social group later in life. Coming to recognize those patterns in ourselves and in others can go a long way in greasing the wheels of social interaction.
In organizational and managerial settings, to what and to whom you give your attention is the primary social reward mechanism. It also serves as a way for those on your team to differentiate that which is important to accomplishing the mission from that which is not.
Friendships and romantic relationships, in particular, are driven by attention. Not every person wants the same intensity or amount of direct attention from their friend or partner, but it's certain that declining attention will spell dissolution of that relationship.
Pray to Worthy Gods
Attention is not just a performance variable. It is a form of devotion — a directional signal of what we value, moment by moment.
Whether it’s in how we train, how we lead, how we listen, or how we care, attention is the thread that connects us to meaning. When we give it fully, we’re telling ourselves — and others — that something matters.
In performance environments, it shapes clarity. In social and professional settings, it signals trust, status, and safety. In intimate relationships, it acts as a vital nutrient. And within ourselves, it defines the contours of our internal life — the stories we reinforce, the habits we rehearse, the identities we inhabit.
I'll leave you on a note from my morning pages after I read the quote at the beginning of this article:
If that’s true, then what I attend to becomes my God — even if only for a moment.
If I pray to what I attend, then I make sacred that thing.
So I must learn to audit what I give attention to…
and reserve my prayer for worthy gods.
Thanks for reading,
Rob
Like to read my stuff? Check out my book:
Check Engine Light: Tuning Body and Mind for Performance Longevity