Today we’ll be talking about currency. The first thing the average person thinks of when that word comes up is probably money, and that’s pretty much what we mean by that. Now, I promise this isn’t going to be a dry economics lecture, so bear with me. I am, however, going to be referencing some concepts from economics, because it turns out the study of how humans make decisions about their scarce resources holds some very apt lessons for the broader human decision-scape.
An interesting principle in economics is that you will get more of the things you pay for. Imagine two movie studios each producing a summer blockbuster. One makes millions in ticket sales on the busiest weekend of the year, and the other one struggles to fill even a single theater. Which studio do you suppose will be more likely to produce a second movie in the future?
You pay for art you want to see more of. You pay your bills so you can keep having your water and power turned on. And you had better pay employees that you want to have continue working for you.
If your favourite pizza place brings out a new topping and you and your friends never order it, don’t be surprised if it disappears off the menu in short order.
Paying, you see, is the way in which we indicate to the world outside of ourselves what we would like to see more of in our lives.
Simple, right?
So let’s talk about another way of paying, and that is this: What are you paying attention to in your life? What are you focussing on a day-to-day basis?
When I was young, there was this kids’ TV segment sponsored by a big-brand toy company where a lucky winner would be let loose in one of the biggest toy stores for 60 seconds with a full-sized shopping trolley, and whatever he or she could load into the trolley, that was what they could walk out of the store with, no questions asked. No part of the store was off-limits. The kid usually had a helper, like a parent or an older sibling, and together they would run around the store, with the kid pointing at things for the helper to load up.
Do you know what you never saw during one of these mad dashes? Never once did the children stop and stare at toys that they were not interested in. Never once did they look over their basket and argued with their helper about what’s in it. Never once did they waste time by trying to put an accidentally chosen toy back on the shelf (and I mean, toys were being swept off the shelves in armfuls, so there were often Barbies going into the same trolley as G.I. Joes). Never once did they stop to look at the baskets of any of the other wide-eyed patrons of the store, who were watching this whole business with the camera crew rushing after a gleeful banshee with a trolley full of free toys.
No, they did none of that. They had only 60 seconds to make their dreams come true. Even having never seen the show, you can probably tell exactly what every single participant did. It’s what we all would do.
Yet, as we go through life we struggle to apply the same principle to our lives.
When you pay attention to something in your life, when you focus on something, that is exactly like “pointing” at it, and the universe, being a good little helper, will load that something into your basket. Are you taking care to ask only for the things you actually want in your life? Or are you wasting time pointing at unwanted things, or staring at your basket and worrying about what’s already in there? I mean, you also have around 60 units of adulthood time to make your dreams come true. How are you spending it?
But what do you do if you wake up one day and realise that you have a bunch of unwanted things in your basket?
Well, you cannot change the past. The closest you can get to putting the item back on the shelf, and thus getting it out of your basket, is to stop giving your focus to that item. Complaining about it, or being upset about it, will not take it away, it only takes away your power to be out there choosing better things to add to your basket. If you constantly give your attention to those things in your basket, then those are the only items remaining in your experience. Similarly, if you keep your attention on the things in other people’s baskets, then you are also not best-placed to be adding great things to your experience.
Of course, looking at someone else’s basket and letting that inspire you as to what you would like to add to your own, or using it as a guideline for what you definitely do not want to add to your own, is not counterproductive in this instance, because you are refining what you want (and do not want) in your basket. (We have all at times decided on our order at a restaurant based on something appetising we saw coming to a nearby table, and that’s perfectly okay). But when you start giving it a lot of attention and arguing about why something should or should not be in someone’s else’s experience, then it is taking away from your opportunity to shop for the best things for you.
And what about something wanted that is in your basket? How do you keep it?
We all view the world through our filters of thoughts and belief, which means that we can choose at any point to focus on the wanted (positive) side of what is in our experience, or the unwanted (negative) side of it.
Let’s have an example: if you have a relationship that you would really like to maintain, how do you go about keeping that in your experience? You focus on your relationship! And not just with any type of focus. You look at the good parts of the relationship with appreciation – and that is the currency that you put towards keeping a wanted relationship! You are putting more in your basket of the thing labelled “a good relationship.” That is you pointing at what you want, and you will be surprised at how often the universe obliges.
But beware: You can also give your relationship attention by focusing on the parts of it that you do not like, by emphasising the unwanted portions. What do you expect will happen then? What is the label of that thing you’re putting into your basket?
So it’s very important to keep an eye on what you’re paying attention to, but it’s also crucial to focus your attention on the appropriate aspect of what you want or what you have, in order to have what you want in your experience. You are guiding your experience like a bonsai master guides a young tree, and your biggest, strongest tool for doing this is also your most powerful currency: your focus and attention.
If you as a painter have the belief that earning a living should be a struggle (the ever-so-popular notion of the tortured artiste), what do you think think you are asking for more of in your experience? In other words, what is dominant within you: the idea that paining is what I love and I want to do more of it; or rather the idea that earning a living (even though I love making paintings) should be a struggle? What are you pointing at for the universe to load into your basket?