Common Objections To The Attention Diet[8]

Objection 1: "But Mark! I'll be soooo boooreeed" – I have two responses to this: a) Shut the fuck up. And b) no, you won't.

Remember when you were a kid and you'd lay around on the floor, flailing around, complaining to your mom, "But mooooommm, I'm booooooreeed" and your mom would just kinda shrug and be like, "Well, that's your problem."

Usually, the greatest part about being a kid came out of those moments. You'd imagine the sofa as a spaceship and plot how you were going to escape to the backdoor without the evil aliens (in this case, mom) seeing you. Or you'd imagine fantastic creatures and get excited to go draw them. Or you'd wander around outside until you found other bored kids to play with.

They say necessity is the mother of invention. Well, boredom is the father. Every great burst of creativity or action is inseminated with the wiles of boredom. Boredom will fuck your brain until it comes up with something awesome to do. And that's a fact.

So, there's a value to boredom. And without realizing it, the constant stimulation of our phones and social media and video games and Netflix series have robbed us of the creative energies of our own boredom. They have stymied our relationships and desires for community—I mean, why go hang out with the neighbors when you can just binge-watch Sex in the City for the eighth time?

Boredom is good. It means you're challenging yourself. It's like bicep curls for your mind. Embrace the boredom. Bathe in the boredom.

Objection 2: What if I'm missing out! – I have written in-depth about the experience of FOMO (or, "Fear of Missing Out") before, but I'll say it here again, briefly:

You are always missing out. You always were and always will be. The question is: what is it that you are choosing to miss out on?

Most of your life, you didn't care that you were missing out because you either weren't aware that you were missing out or you were missing out on things you knew didn't matter to you. Social media fucks up both of those—it makes you aware of everything, and it also gives you the false perception that things are way more important than they are.

The result: constant FOMO.

Eliminate the bullshit social media use (i.e., implement the Attention Diet), eliminate the perception that those things are important and boom, no sensation of "missing out" on anything.

Ninety percent of the most important experiences in life are right in front of you. And instead of distracting yourself from them, as you have been, the Attention Diet will finally free you to face them.

Remember: it's about quality over quantity.

Objection 3: I should be able to discipline myself to stop using these things – I'm surprised at how many people say this. It's a noble intention but unfortunately, completely misguided.

Imagine someone who wants to lose 20 pounds stocking their fridge with cake, ice cream, and frozen pizzas and then saying, "It's okay, I should be able to use my willpower to not eat these things."

That's insanity. Everyone knows the first thing you do when you try to change your nutritional diet is you throw all the garbage out. We are weak creatures. We cave easily. We are totally unconscious of our own reasoning and often slaves to our whims. You'd be dumb to trust yourself in such a situation.

If you're trying to develop a habit of waking up at 6AM, you set an alarm every morning (or maybe two). If you're trying to develop a habit of calling your parents more often, you put post-its in your office or add events on your calendar.

The dirty little secret of changing your habits is that your environment has far more of an effect than your willpower does.1 When you want to lose weight, you stock the fridge with healthy food and throw out the crap. When you want to exercise more, you hire a trainer or find a friend to keep you accountable.

So why would it be any different with your attention?

The point of this whole Attention Diet thing is to generate an environment conducive to healthy attention habits. Because, I'm sorry, if your willpower was enough, you wouldn't even be reading this thing. If you're still here, then guess what—you got a problem. I got a problem. We all got problems. Hell, I bet you're checking shit in between paragraphs, you fucking degenerate.

Now, come on. Let's get our shit together… err, together.