Where You Need to Focus Your Attention in 2025

There's a big year ahead, for everyone

Photo by Nong on Unsplash

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Today’s issue of Backstage Pass will be focused less on marketing and business, and more on society and politics. 2025 will be a massively transformational year for America, and the world as a whole. Every move made by the incoming Trump administration will be framed as either the best or worst possible scenario, based on the political leanings of the source.

As you process this information, always keep in mind that these sources have a vested interest in getting you to have a strong emotional response to their claims. Because if you are excited or upset about what you are hearing, you will be more likely to spread that information.

Which is why you can expect to hear that every move being made will either save democracy, or destroy it.

It’s worth remembering that we saw essentially the same thing when Obama was in office. Every move was amazing or horrific, depending on which cable news channel you watched. The media has a vested interest in sparking a visceral reaction in its audience. The main difference between 2008 and 2024 is that now, we are ALL the media. The proliferation of ‘influencers’ means we are being bombarded with information, from all sides.

And much of it, either intentionally or accidentally, will be incorrect. Which makes it more important than ever to safe-guard your sanity by not biting on every shiny hook dropped in your social media feed.

Here’s a personal example: When Obama was elected in 2008, my conservative friends started sharing daily stories from conservative media about how Obama’s policy plans were disastrous for America. Every day was an update on how ‘Obama is ruining America’.

After a few months of this, I realized that all this was doing was causing me to worry about things that I had no control over, and which sometimes didn’t even happen. I stopped listening to almost all media. In fact, I totally shut news out of my life, I was blissfully ignorant! It was actually one of the more productive periods of my life. At one point a friend texted me whom I hadn’t heard from in a long time and asked ‘Are you ok?’ When I replied that I was, she said she was texting to check on me because the news says there was a tornado on top of me. I had no idea! Perhaps that’s too extreme of a media detox, but you get the idea.

So as we head in 2025, I would advise everyone to focus more attention on what you can control, and do your best to tune out the noise. One of the themes I’ve been hitting on recently is running your own race. Let’s be honest, we all want to be in control or at least feel like we have more control over our lives. When we feel like we are in control, then we feel more confident and accomplished. It simply leads to a better mental attitude, I feel.

But when we feel that our circumstances are out of our control, then it’s quite easy to feel deflated. And these feelings are only heightened when we consume constant ‘doom and gloom’ from the media. What good is it to be doing well at your job if the media is claiming the entire economy will crash in 3 months? Worse, what if that ‘crash’ never happens, but we worried and stressed about it for months anyway?

Treat Your Attention As a Perishable Resource

You do not have unlimited attention. Treat it as the scarce resource that it is, and spend it on sources that improve your mood, focus, and ability. This is what it means to run your own race; invest your attention in yourself. This isn’t about ego, this is about you being a wise steward of your limited resources. The majority of your attention should be placed on areas of your life where you have direct control, while the areas where you have indirect or no control, get less attention.

If you were to list and rank the areas of your life that you have control over, you can assign levels of attention accordingly. Here’s an example:

Relationships with your immediate family - Direct control

Your ability to advance in your career - Indirect control

How the President is running the country - Almost no control

This simple example can help you visualize the importance of focusing your attention on areas of your life that you can control. And let’s be honest: When you feel like you are focused on areas of your life where you have more control, it’s empowering. It improves your mood, and that improves your productivity and your relationships with others.

So please think about the value of your attention and where it is focused in 2025. I’ll return to regular programming on Thursday, but I just don’t want to see my friends spending 2025 worrying about issues that either aren’t worth their attention, or that they have no control over. Focus on yourself and the areas where you have more control and ignore the noise. I think that will lead to a more successful year for you.

That’s it for this issue of Backstage Pass. I wish you a very Happy New Year and prosperous 2025. I will be back on Thursday with the first issue of 2025, recapping what happened during my seventh month publishing on Substack. See you then!

Mack