The quality of our lives depends on the quality of our attention, and never before has our attention been so violently fought over.

Even now, as I am typing this, and as you are perhaps reading this, my attention is stretched and fatigued, pulled in an infinite amount of directions. This is a suboptimal state to be in.

As Verlyn Klinkenborg writes in Several Short Sentences About Writing:

“But everything you notice is important.
Let me say that a different way:
If you notice something, it’s because it’s important.
But what you notice depends on what you allow yourself to notice,
And that depends on what you feel authorized, permitted to notice
In a world where we’re trained to disregard our perceptions.

Who’s going to give you the authority to feel that what you notice is important?
It will have to be you.
The authority you feel has a great deal to do with how you write, and what you write,
With your ability to pay attention to the shape and meaning of your own thoughts
And the value of your own perceptions.

Being a writer is an act of perpetual self-authorization.
No matter who you are.
Only you can authorize yourself….
No one else can authorize you.
No one.”

A beautiful reminder.

Credits: Austin Kleon