For Every Thing Turn, Turn, Turn

My old friend @cedwardbrice DM'd me this evening and said, "Will you please add a new post to AbleBrains..."

Ok Ed, you got my attention. 

I haven't written a word in over 2 months so either there is a lot of stuff to talk about or I got nuthin!  And, I've been bitchin' and moanin' that my blogmuse left me.  But the fact of the matter is, some of my discipline has left me -- the creativity is there, the craziness is there, the design orientation is there but my discipline to get it down in words that are shareable???  Uh uh.  Which is not like me because I'm a reasonably disciplined person. But I have a theory. (of course you do Steve, what else is new?)

My theory is (and this theory may only be applicable to me, therefore, its irrefutably correct) that just like attention, just like authority, we gather it up to us and then apply it, but we don't have an unlimited reservoir of discipline. At least I don't.  Its finite and it needs to be parceled out to those things that are priorities in life. For me, that means the triplets, my family and my work.  After that, any discipline I have left over has to be spread to hundreds of tasks.

But isn't discipline a mind over matter thing?  Isn't it just a matter of applying yourself?  YeaaaaaNooo!
Yes, its a matter of applying yourself when needed but ever hear of burn out?  You know that feeling, you can't raise a paper to pen, can't bear another conference call... you may be disciplined but you can't bring yourself to do it?

hmmm is there a red thread here somewhere?  Something that ties the notions of attention, discipline, & the parceling of authority together? Well yeah, they all require the mental acuity to utilize them in a focused way. But that's just cognitive skills 101. 

Attention, Discipline and Authority Parceling are all subject to fragmentation.

So....

1. Interruption based marketing doesn't work because you're fighting for the already fragmented attention of consumers
2. We're overloaded with tasks and things to do! The constant struggle between family and work, heck the struggle to maintain a job these days, pulls at our discipline -- fragmenting it and preventing focus.  What a bad time to NOT be disciplined.
3. Just how many things can you be an authority on? Authority is the most fragile of the three.  The most subject to fragmentation because of the ego stroking effects of Authority. "Hey this feels good. I'll try to be authoritative on more subjects..." With few exceptions the more things one tries to be authoritative at, the less of an authority one actually is.

Which brings me to the title of this post.  What does a line from a Byrds tune have to do with Attention, Discipline and Authority?

Absolutely NOTHING. Except that I am writing this with 24.5 hours till 2009 - another cycle has been completed and another one about to commence.  So to you and yours may you have a wonderful New Year. And if 2008 has been rough for you or your hoping for some uplifts in the coming year... for everything, Turn! Turn! Turn!