Control of attention is the ultimate individual power. People who can do that are not prisoners of the stimuli around them. They can choose from the patterns in the world and lengthen their time horizons. This individual power leads to others. It leads to self-control, the ability to formulate strategies in order to resist impulses. If forced to choose, we would all rather our children be poor with self-control than rich without it.

It’s by David Brooks, a NY Times columnist. It’s a critical element to my success and a struggle I face everyday as a small businessman. Especially since a key element of my client work is making sense of the technologies we need to harness, whether its email, Facebook and it’s ilk, or more significant tools such as Customer Resource Management (CRM). My ability to focus on the goals I establish will allow me to do the things I want. Much like the sign I saw at Jimmy John’s

If you do the things you have to do when you have to do them SOMEDAY you will be able to do the things you want to do when you want to do them.

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That’s my New Years resolution, and my daily resolution. Hat tip to Jakob Nielsen, who also offers his Top 10 list for addressing information pollution, for individuals and for companies.