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“What is your passion?”

My go-to answer was always “digital wellbeing”. I would enter this 5-minute spiel about what it is, and why it’s important. Others would nod in amusement, ask a few inquisitive questions, and conclude the conversation with “it’s amazing that you found your passion.” I smile and go about my day.

But…

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What have I done about it?

Over a nice workday afternoon coffee chat, I had a catch-up with a curious colleague who I previously gave my “passion” spiel. This time, she followed up, how is the digital wellbeing side-project going? On the spot, I gave a generic answer and justified my inaction. But after the conversation, the realization hit.

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‍What have I done about it? ever?

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Sure I’ve studied it but no meaningful action has been taken… I took a hard look in the mirror and ask myself, “Why is that?” and more importantly, “Do I need to change?”.

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The I’m-not-in-the-right-place hypothesis

Symptom: Inaction towards passionate problem space.

Potential cause: I am not in the right place to take action.

Next step: Pivot passion to something I can take action on.

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Let’s assume the above is correct. Let’s pivot. Okay, so let’s identify my new passion.

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Do not ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
‍—Howard Thurman

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Knowing what I know today, can I pick a new passion? I don’t think so, so let’s expand my knowledge horizon.

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Now, I can expand my knowledge to no end, so let’s set a goal (the what) and a deadline (the when).

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Before we set a deadline, it would help to define the approach to expand my knowledge horizon (the how).

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Let’s use divergent thinking to brainstorm, and convergent thinking to narrow down, then begin experimenting with the most promising options.

Divergent

I need a strategy to best brainstorm a diverse set of problem spaces I might be interested in.

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Luckily, United Nations categorized the world’s problems into 17 buckets, under SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) framework.

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No poverty, zero hunger, good health & wellbeing, quality education, gender equality, clean water & sanitation, affordable & clean energy, decent work & economic growth, industry & innovation & infrastructure, reduce inequalities, sustainable cities & communities, responsible consumption & production, climate action, life below water, life on land, peace & justice & strong institutions, partnerships for the goals.

Convergent

From this list of 17 things, let’s narrow the list down. What criteria should I use to keep or discard? Let’s simplify and cut off buckets I am clearly uninterested in. Here’s whats left.

1. responsible consumption & production,
2. good health & wellbeing,
3. quality education,
4. decent work & economic growth,
5. reduce inequalities,

Eureka!

The list screamed out “attention”! I am interested in Attention! The internet enabled us to talk to anyone, watch anything, and be anywhere; and our attention scattered. This abundance of options meant we don’t give important things enough attention, we are increasingly prone to distractions, and we pay less attention to sources that challenge our own perspective. All of these lead to:

1. poor consumption & poor production of tech
2. reduced health & wellbeing
3. distracted students
4. reduced output and less specialized society
5. polarized society from sampling bias

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Great! I am interested in attention. What does that mean?

Reframing my passion

I am interested in…

1. Understanding mechanisms of attention,
2. Managing my own attention,
3. and helping others manage their attention.

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I am interested in these things because I believe attention is the currency of life. Not time (because factors that influence quality of time like being in a coma).

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Breaking down attention into quality of attention & quantity of attention reveals a few levers to improve our attention.

1. Quality of attention
2. Increase high-quality attention tasks (rewarding experiences, time well spent)
3. Decrease low-quality attention tasks (regretful experiences)
4. Improve the quality of attention (flow state, removing distractions, etc.)
5. Quantity of attention
6. Increase attentive time (energize, exercise, eating well, sleep, etc.)
7. Decrease distracted time (minimizing distractors, setting limits, etc.)

Reflection—Wait, am I addressing inaction?

Great, based on my hypothesis that I am not in the right place, I should pivot and redefine my passion. I appreciate the new articulation of my passion from digital well-being to attention, but is it meaningfully different? Is it not just a different articulation of the same interest/problem space? Ultimately, will it solve inaction? I was not so sure.

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The absence of a plan hypothesis

The previous hypothesis assumed being in the right place would empower me to take action and contribute toward the problem space. Put it nicely, it’s an excuse I tell myself to distract from the reality that I cannot answer the question “’I am not in the right place’ to do what?”.

I believe the real problem was that I didn’t have a goal of what I wanted to achieve and how I would achieve them. Without a plan, any task remotely relevant will be considered action. A mirage, if not acknowledged early, can lead to a feeling of accomplishment without any real outcome.

Hence, let’s reframe the problem entirely.

Symptom: Inaction towards passionate problem space.Potential cause: Missing plan of action that bridges where I am and where I want to be.

Structuring the plan

The plan needs 3 fundamental things…

1. Where do I want to be?
2. Where I am with respect to where I want to be?
3. Steps to close the gap between 1 & 2?

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As previously mentioned, I am interested in…

1. Understanding mechanisms of attention,
2. Managing my own attention,
3. and helping others manage their attention.

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If I combine the two list, I get…

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Understanding mechanisms of attention

1. What do I want to understand about mechanisms of attention?
2. What do I already understand about mechanisms of attention?
3. Steps to close the gap?

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Managing my own attention

1. What is the ideal way to manage my attention?
2. How am I currently managing my attention?
3. Steps to close the gap?

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Helping others manage their attention

1. How do I envision myself contributing to help others manage their attention?
2. What do I have to offer today?
3. What do I need to contribute as I envision?

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Im happy! This is a much better framework to understand what I want to do and what I need to do. I have a plan. I will use this as a starting point. Once I have a plan, I just need to execute. I have a tendency to let go after the plan is established. Will work on that.

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