My colleague Mafe Saldarriaga pointed me to this maxim: Pay Attention To What You Pay Attention to.
We often ask our clients in our review sessions where they find “heat” or what resonated with them — which is another way of prodding you to turn your attention inside and notice what you are paying attention to. I find this to be an incredibly useful exercise as it not only allows for self-reflection but also gives you a good indicator of what you choose to focus on (and thus, in turn, what you chose not to focus on).
Everyone operates with limited resources. There are only so many hours in the day, so much energy you can give to a project, so much money you can spend. Taking the time to step back every once in a while and reassessing where you spend your limited resources (and where not), and asking yourself if this is truly the best prioritization for what you want to achieve, is an incredibly valuable exercise.
Moreover, and this is a nice side effect, it allows you to suss out the things “you should spend time on” from the things “you want/like to spend time on”, as these can be vastly different (and many of us, arguably, spend too much energy on the shoulds versus the wants).
What are you paying attention to?