It’s easy to not pay attention to the world.
We lower our eyes when we walk and avoid eye contact at the supermarket.
For most of us, our default state tends to be ignoring what’s around us.
But doing so makes us miss out on inspiration and fails to develop our curiosities.
Here’s how to train yourself to pay a little more attention to the world around you.
We know that getting out and taking awalk can boost creativityand alittle mindfulness can helpwith all sorts of things.
But neither of those is useful if you’re still gazing at your navel.
Being observant means watching people, situations, and events, thenthinking criticallyabout what you see.
We miss a lot in the world while we’re busy shuffling between here and there.
If nothing else, you’ll expand your worldview.
First, you have to train yourself to pay attention again.
We focus on specific things, then filter out everything else.
When you do, you’ll naturally come up with more ideas for any given subject.
Instead, you might be better off giving yourself a series of challenges.
These challenges can be anything, but it’s probably best to start with something that matters to you.
Here are just a few ideas to get you started, compiled partially from thisQuora threadand thisMedium post.
Spend some time taking it all in and watching people.
Assign yourself a scavenger hunt: Pick something and look for it throughout your day.
This could be anything, broken windows, security cameras, or a particular graffiti artist.
Find it, take a picture, or note it.
When you’re done, venture to figure out why that stuff is there.
This in turn helps you pay attention to all kinds of new things.
Walk with an expert: Chances are, you have some friends with different careers and hobbies than you.
Take a walk with them and they’ll teach you new things about the space around you.
It might be local history, geology, or even typography.
Take field notes: We’vetalked about this before, and the idea is pretty simple.
Pick a place, sit down, and write or sketch out everything you see.
This trains your brain to pay more attention and observe more of the world.
It certainly trains you mind to look through a camera lens a little differently.
it’s possible for you to choose any challenge that suits your needs.
Don’t be afraid to leave your comfort zone, though.
The trick is to challenge yourself to look at your everyday in a new way.
Two things primarily:
danger and comfort
.
No, but let’s start with that.
Simply ask yourself at all times, “How does this situation or this individual make me feel?”
Assessing for comfort can really open your eyes.
If he or she doesn’t, then the question is “why?”
We’ve talked plenty aboutreading body language,detecting lies, andreading expressions.
Those are all great, but they all also require the more general act of observing.
It’s not just about keeping yourself safe or spotting inconsistencies.
When you’re observing people and paying attention, you’ll notice all kinds of new things about them.
But it’s far more useful once you’re free to pick out the patterns.
Detecting patterns and combining that with your experience is what allows you predict what happens next.
The more you observe of the world and people, the better you become at detecting patterns.
Subsequently, you get better at predicting what will happen next.
If you’re not paying attention and observing, you’ll miss it.
The same goes for anything you see out in the world.
Observing the world is just the first step.
The more your observe, the more you ask why.
The more you ask why, the more you learn.
Photo byMopic,Mads Bodker,Scott Cresswell,Elvert Barnes,Vinoth Chandar.
