Ronell Smith: In a world of constant disruption and information overload, success depends on focus.
In a world of constant disruption and nonstop exposure, the students who control their attention gain the agency to move forward“Dad, what are your thoughts on the war with Iran?” asked my oldest daughter, home from college for spring break.
Before I could answer, she followed with questions about Ukraine, the economy, career prospects and the feasibility of living abroad after graduation, given the global turmoil.trying to reassure his staff about the Scranton branch — only to blurt out, “It’s over. We are screwed. Dunder Mifflin Scranton is being shut down.” Luckily, what left my lips were my real feelings, words she’s heard hundreds of times. “Do not be distracted by what’s going on around you or in the world,” I said. “This is America. Things will be hard, yes, but as long as you keep God first, remain committed to doing the hard things, and build strong, lasting relationships, you will be fine.”I believed every word, but I couldn’t help feeling that clarity is harder to come by than it used to be, and that uncertainty now lingers rather than passes. I found myself comparing what she’s walking into against what I lived through; the comparison wasn’t reassuring. I’m still haunted by images of the Challenger shuttle exploding overhead as I stood outside my school, mouth agape, with hundreds of my fellow students. We didn’t fully grasp what happened, but the looks on our teachers’ faces and the scramble to end the school day are not something you easily forget. The same is true for the psychological and economic shock of Sept. 11, 2001, and living through the Great Recession, watching our home value sink 40% in a matter of months.But those moments, as jarring as they were, had edges. They began, they unfolded, and eventually, they gave way to something akin to normalcy. What’s different now is not the presence of disruption, but its structure: It’s continuous, compounding and rarely allows for a reset. The COVID-19 shutdown, the George Floyd protests and the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection didn’t arrive in isolation. They overlapped, extended and were followed by a constant stream of updates, analysis and reaction. For this generation, disruption doesn’t interrupt life. It runs alongside it. That constant exposure — driven by social media and the smartphone — changes how events are experienced. When friends tell me our kids have it easy, I push back. No generation has had its thoughts, feelings and opinions surfaced, scrutinized and reinforced in real time — or lived under a nonstop stream of breaking news — the way this one has.. Find a way, I say. Pulling from my love of entomology, I’ve often told them to be like the roach — a crude metaphor if ever there was one — by being impossible to stop. And when they went off to college, I told them to ignore the follow-your-passion advice, and instead, understanding where their strengths are relative to their peers. But resilience and strategy only work if you can see clearly enough to use them. And that’s what’s hardest right now. But I’m more certain about something else. In an environment where everything demands attention, the advantage goes to those who can decide what deserves it. Focus is no longer a baseline skill. It’s a differentiator. It’s what preserves agency in a world designed to fragment it. If she can hold her attention on what matters — her work, her relationships, her direction — she’ll have more control than most in a world that offers very little of it.Ronell Smith is a business strategy consultant and a former Southlake City Council member. He is a Dallas Morning News contributing columnist.Libraries, roads and City Hall: Here’s what came up in Dallas’ budget town halls
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