“Experience is what I agree to attend to… And the faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again, is the very root of judgment, character, and will. No one is compos sui (Latin for master of one’s self) if he have it not. An education which should improve this faculty would be the education par excellence. But it is easier to define this ideal than to give practical directions for bringing it about.”

The father of American psychology, William James, wrote the above quote in his book The Principles of Psychology, published in 1890. We are nothing more than our experiences. However, one’s experience does not come with age; it comes with quality of attention.

What to pay attention to = judgment (thinking skill).
How well will I work with it = character (attitude).
How long I will work with it = will (determination).

William James declared this more than 100 years ago. How eloquently he said it! He also stated that it is much harder to define attention than to gain attention. Ask yourself, “Who wants attention?” You desperately crave it and so does everyone else! Attention is a fundamental desire and need of every human being. What is attention, why do we need it, how do we gain it, and how can we measure it? These questions have arisen throughout history. After all these centuries, the task to solve this mystery has been left for me– how lucky I am!  Let’s begin.

What is attention? ‘Focus’ and ‘concentration’ are synonyms of attention. Let’s dissect each word:

Attend means to be present, or participating in activities. Focus signifies the center of activities or interests. Concentrate is comprised of three words: ‘con’ means together + ‘center’ means middle of boundary + suffix of ‘-ate’ which means causing. Therefore, concentrate means causing things (informations and energies) to come together.

In order to understand this properly, we need to agree that a human is comprised of body, mind, and spirit. The purpose of attention is to allow us to learn and comprehend to find all the hidden meanings of this beautiful world; furthermore, attention offers us the ability to operate with all of our physical, mental, and spiritual capacities. This is why William James declared that he who has this faculty can be the master of himself. History proves that all the art masterpieces, great thoughts, and works of genius are the result of the concentrated attention of body, mind, and spiritual energy.

Thus, attention is the faculty to direct one’s physical, mental and spiritual (life) energy. In other word, with this faculty we are operating our life, anyway we want, how much we want.  With this, I ponder the following Bible verse, Mat 22: 36-40 [NIV]:

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?” Jesus replied; “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and prophets hang on these two commandments.”

The Human EngineerⓇ has the complete answer for all the questions previously asked, I look forward to presenting this to you in the near future. I have many successful case for AD/HD students that no more drugs after training little while with me.

Come in today to see what Master Lee can do for you.

Ⓒ Copyright 2014, Jeeho Lee, Human EngineerⓇ