How to get into Second Life without really trying
Selby Evans is Thinkerer Melville in Second Life
We are not talking about those phone calls congratulating you on the prize you just won. Or the people who come to the door offering eternal life. Or the pop-ups on your screen with the free invitation to the casino.
Distractions are in the here and now.
Long term goals are in the there and then.
We are talking about the distractions that pop into your head while you are trying to get something done. The distractions that keep reminding you of:
what other things you should be doing,
what you should do next,
what you should have already done,
what you should feel guilty about doing or not doing,
what you’d rather be doing.
These distractions come from modules in your brain. These modules are not backing what you think is your main goal. Often they have other jobs. Take, for example, the bladder module. It keeps track of stretching signals from your bladder. Most of the time the bladder module doesn't focus on any goal. Its main contribution to your job is to keep quiet. It will stay quiet for a long time. Then it will send you an urgent notice.
Pee on this job.
Of course, you sit there and complain about this annoying distraction. You wonder why your thoughts keep wandering to your bladder. You wish you had more mental discipline. You wish you had the will power to stay focused on your goal.
This is a really stupid example.
True. It is an example of how to learn by getting things wrong.
There is much to learn from what you don’t know
You don’t hear the message from your bladder module as an annoying distraction. You hear it as a perfectly natural interruption. You suspend your focus on the current goal and tend to the job of emptying your bladder. If you need to find an appropriate place, you will focus quite intently on this new (short-term) goal. Then you get back to your main goal.
Or you may take the larger view that dealing with the bladder signal was simply a minor subgoal on the road to finishing your current project.
So why do some modules produce annoying distractions when others just produce interruptions that you take care of?
Why is an itch worse if you can’t scratch it?
Head Starts
Meet those strange distracters.
Focus and concentration
Every brain can focus. But there are still tricks in that trade
Tools: Self-Awareness
What you do know will help you.
Strengths for focusing
Determined
Enthusiastic, Can Be
Focused
Goal Setter, Good
Hard-working
Planner, Good
Problem-Solver
Self-directing