What hijacks your mind?
Are there specific things that immediately grab your attention or certain images, issues, interests, or people that simply stay on your mind?
In a meeting with my online marketing team, we were discussing social media behaviours and what makes people pay attention. They asked me what I noticed about posts and what kind of content I witnessed got the most reactions or engagement. I replied that sometimes I post the most incredible video or article that I think is life-changing yet it gets 100% ignored. Then I see someone else update their profile picture and the likes and comments pour in faster than credit card bills. Kris and Brandon have an adorable way of humbling me by saying things like, “…but Jae, what is important to you is not necessarily important to someone else.” (they make me smile). And, of course, any level of pressure or imposition for anyone to accept content would take away from the spontaneity and fun of choice learning, right?
Isn’t that what is so cool about social media, that we can share and learn based on our interest level, attention span, time allotment and, well, mostly interest level (worth repeating) and interact with what feeds our unique curiosity? So why do we have a rigid education system that insists we all learn the same things in the same way?
Aha! ~ “Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.” ~ Plato
As children, focused attention is sparked by curiosity and held by interest. Tempering that curiosity by railroading wide-open minds into conformed learning fails to validate – no, fails to celebrate and foster – each magnificent spirit anxious to expand and express itself.
When my son was in primary school, he admitted how much more effort it was to get A’s in some subjects than others. I shared that his job was not to try and be good at everything, but to pay attention to what he loved to learn about and develop that interest. The school system won with their rewards and accolades for being on the honour roll, so my son dedicated himself to being an honours student right through university. Now he plays by his own rules with an acute awareness of his genius, is always expanding in work he loves to do and is more than comfortably compensated.
What if we raised our little ones to develop their genius early and in gratitude for their profound uniqueness?
“A grateful mind is a great mind which eventually attracts to itself great things.” Plato
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Craving A Human Approach? Marketing made simple.
Succeed Deliberately!
Jae M. Rang, MAS
Strategist, Speaker, Author, Mom
