Mental Model Practices

Attention

Benefit: Growth
Prerequisites:

Description

Whatever our mind dwells on, it strengthens that concept. The stronger a concept becomes, the more we tend to embody its characteristics. Therefore, it is crucial to understand where we direct our attention. These practices do not focus on methods for changing attention, but rather on becoming aware of where it currently lies. Even by simply being aware of our attention, we subconsciously start changing it.

Practice

  1. Write down 5 to 10 concepts that you thought about in the past hour.
  2. Rank them exponentially, using both positive and negative numbers, from most useful to least useful.

Example

Concepts: Being hydrated, my weight, housemate's pretty friends, IQ of people, mental models, code, girl I like. Now, I would rank them from most useful to least useful as follows:

  • 10000x Being hydrated
  • 1000x Mental-models
  • 100x My weight
  • 10x Code
  • 0 IQ of people
  • -10x Girl I like
  • -100x Housemate's pretty friends

This shows what I should invite more into my life and what I should avoid. Of course, I use other mental models to categorize these, and using different mental tools will help me prioritize them in different ways.