Letting Go of Dreams

Our culture lionises grit and perseverance, but the ability to be adaptable and flexible, and pivot to new opportunities, is just as important. The common phenomenon of ‘goal shielding’ puts us at risk of persevering for too long with unobtainable dreams, though there is no surefire way to make the right decision on this. To assuage the pain of letting go of a dream, be realistic about what you’re giving up – even if you succeeded, it was unlikely to be the romanticised version you pi...

 The Spotlight, Starlight, and Daylight of Attention

irst, the “spotlight” of attention is how cognitive scientists tend to talk about perceptual attention. The things that are task-salient in my environment. How I select and interact with those, basically. Second, the “starlight.” If the spotlight is about doing things, the starlight is who I want to be, not just what I want to do. It’s like those goals that are valuable for their own sake, not because they’re instrumental toward some other goal. Also, over time, how we keep movin...