Attention Please

Hey, may I have your attention, please? If I could make one suggestion that would improve your life, your business, your relationships, your productivity, your health, and your happiness. Would you take that advice? Once a year, I go to the ENT for a follow up because I had a sinus surgery one time. Last week I was in his office and I'm sitting there and it was packed and I noticed one thing and it drove me crazy.

Every single person in that waiting room from about the age 18 months, all the way to 80 were looking down at a device. They had a couple of kids that couldn't even talk. I mean, they weren't at the age yet that they could talk. They would show their parents something on their device and the parents would look down and acknowledge them.

And look, I know what it's like to be in a waiting room with kids. You don't want them to make a lot of noise and draw attention. But it's so sad when you see people just sitting there ignoring one another and looking down at a device. I can say the same thing about couples I see at dinner. They're sitting there and they're looking down at their phones, not even talking.

The other day I was with my wife and my daughter and we were talking to my daughter about how her day at school went and she called me out. I was looking at reels. When I say I'm as guilty as anybody else, but when she called me out, I was embarrassed. I started thinking, I have about one year left before she goes off to college and I am not giving her the attention that she needs and the time that I'm going to crave once she's gone.

Here's the one suggestion that I was talking about. Put your phone away. Now I know you need your phone for work and you need it, you know, to be in touch with people that you love. And you need it to give you directions to where you're going. Here are a few things that I've been doing lately, and I want to see if they'll help you to buy a watch and I mean an analog watch.

I remember sitting in the office with clients and I was constantly looking at my phone to see what time it was. And then every time I got a text message or an email, a little pop up would come back and my phone light would come on. So it would draw my attention down to the phone and away from my client.

My client is paying me to listen and pay attention. I don't need to be checking my phone when I'm with a client. The next thing you could do is stop bringing your phone to dinner or lunch. Whether it's business or your family, put your phone away. Either put it in your pocket or leave it in your car, because that is precious time.

When you walk or jog or exercise, put your phone away. I know a lot of us like to listen to a podcast and and things and we feel like, well, we can get a lot done if we're listening to things while we're doing something else. But the truth of the matter is, your brain is not able to think of the ideas you need to think.

I write scripts. I think of things like this. I do everything when I walk and it's really helpful for me and I want to see if it might help you, too. Here's something I want you to try. Just for observational purposes, the next time you're in a waiting room, when you're sitting in a public area and people are sitting there waiting, I want you to put your phone away and force yourself not to look at your phone.

I don't care what it takes. I think what's going to happen is you're going to observe just how bad this problem is. Like me, you're going to see everybody in that waiting room with their head down and ignoring the people they're sitting right next to. And then finally, be really aware of where your attention is focused. Give your attention to the people you love and to those people who really deserve it your team members, your customers, and perfect strangers.

As you do this and you become more aware of where your attention is going or where it used to not go. Comment below. I want to hear back from you on how this is going, how it's helping you be more productive, live a more present, better life, be more present to your employees and productive at work and see if it's not helping your business.

So I would love to hear back from you by coming back to this video and commenting and sharing it with somebody else who you think might be able to use it. Now that I have your attention, I want to make sure you hear this clearly. Lead your people, grow your company and live your life.