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I never stop talking about the power of paying conscious attention because it changed everything for me.
Everything. From my Deen, studying, to teaching, to writing, to martial arts, to conversations, to my relationships with people, paying more attention was a little improvement that sparked massive change.
See, just before I went to university, I read a book. I don't remember the title or the author, but I remember it was my elder brother who shared it with me. (I've tried hard to remember what book it was, and on some days, I suspect it was Cal Newport's How to Become a Straight-A Student)
The author spent a lot of pages talking about the power of conscious attention, but that was not the part that changed me. It was the part where he used a maxim that said: "Wherever you are, be there!"
Where you are, be there.
This stuck with me, and it has followed me around for years. I repeat it in my head when I'm doing anything and I find myself not paying attention. I'm here, but I'm not here yet because I'm not paying attention.
Then I go. Wherever you are, be there.
The fact that I could say this to myself in that short form meant that I could spark change in myself without thinking too hard about it.
So while I studied and taught and fought and wrote, I told myself: "Wherever you are, be there." And I saw changes that were instant.
I could study for shorter hours and achieve more if I applied myself consciously. I would stare at the lecturers in class and set a challenge for myself for my gaze to never leave them until the end of the class. I instantly learned better in class, even from the lecturers that were considered 'boring', and students didn't pay a lot of attention to.
If I am here in class physically, it's stupid to not be here completely!
As I continued to see the effects, it became more and more shocking to me that a lot of people didn't seem to understand how powerful this was.
In class, I'd see students who had come to study, hold a text in one hand and have a chat with their phone in the other hand.
I'd see people who came to 'study with friends', catching a fast joke with friends for every two minutes they studied.
I imagined how two hours of conscious attention would have been enough to study all that studied for all of the night in this manner.
I saw people who sat in important meetings holding their phones and smiling at their phones while they thought they were in the meeting.
I saw people have conversations while sharing their attention between their phone and the person they talked to.
And everytime, there was a voice screaming in my head: "Wherever you are, be there!"
Please, wherever you are, be there.
It will change your life.
(PS: A few times while writing this, I tried to open my WhatsApp and reply to messages. But as soon as I open the menu, I get the voice. Wherever you are, be there. It is why I was able to complete this.)
Sobur Adedokun