I am a professional noticer. It is my job, but it is also my nature. Most of what I notice is unimportant, but I have to notice it in order to know that it is unimportant!

There are risks to being a professional noticer – chief of which is sensory overload. If I get overstimulated and drawn in by the things I notice, then I am in trouble.

On the plus side, noticing has helped me to make my own mind up about things, because by being a professional noticer I do not have to rely upon other people to tell me what something is or isn’t. I look for myself, and this means I spot things sooner than most others…

Noticing is not thinking, and nor is it research. It is what we should do while we are thinking or researching. It is a skill that everyone can develop, and it begins in the most ordinary way. What was the colour of the scarf worn by the person who last walked past you? Which person, you would say, if you weren’t noticing...

Noticing is not the same as judging. Noticing involves registering, only. If the scarf was yellow with black criss-cross stripes then there can be no reaction as to whether you like the scarf and no narrative about how much he or she looked like Rupert the Bear. Noticing is one thing, but if you let the mind off its hook, and start making connections where none really exist then madness beckons.

Noticing only works if you can set aside your own preferences. A professional noticer with strong likes and dislikes will only ever notice what they want to notice, and will regularly walk past a thousand different opportunities for growth, not because they cannot see them, but because they do not want to…

Becoming a professional noticer is about turning curiosity into a habit. Over-emotional people make poor noticers because they recoil too easy from, or are drawn too quickly toward, their likes and dislikes. You have to be a bit of an outsider to be a professional noticer. It starts with being a people-watcher, and then you just take that to the max…

Regular meditation, of any sort, greatly helps the development of this skill, while extreme busyness defeats it. Coffee and artificial stimulants look like aids but are in fact obstacles. Practices such as the Alexander Technique and Eurythmy can be very useful.

Throughout my professional noticing career, I have spotted two things, over and over again.

First is that every human being is different. Not only do they look different, but they speak, act and move differently. Without exception, people continue to be endlessly surprising and varied. Why some now wish to rub this out is quite beyond me, but make no mistake, there is a war on against the individual’s right to choose, to think, to speak and act as they see fit. Human differences are under attack. There are now far too many people who wish to hear only one point of view, or belong to only one tribe, and they are too ready to cast out anyone who thinks or belongs differently. It is almost like they do not want to notice the endless diversity of individual humans and are trying their best to erase it…

The second thing that I keep noticing is that there are an increasing amount of disconnects. I can spot these instantly and almost without fail; the gap between words and deeds, intentions and delivery, theory and practice. Perhaps I was born with this skill. I certainly used it at school, and my teachers did not like it. But I have also developed it over time, which I strongly recommend you also do. Step one on the path is hard though, because it involves an uncomfortable reckoning with human nature.

For example, all people want to eat, drink, be safe and connect to others. Anything (or anyone) that is perceived to threaten these basic needs will be resisted, denied and in some cases destroyed. This happens a thousand times a day in a million different low-key ways. Many crimes have been committed by those who will do anything to feed their family. Many injustices have been perpetuated by those who cannot afford to lose their job. Such people will always go along with the ruling power in their community, and seeing this reality is a big step toward mental freedom. People vote for X, believe in Y, and do Z because to do otherwise is too costly. People in these circumstances will hardly never ‘do the right thing’ because it would destroy their lives. They might say all the right words, but when it comes to the crunch they simply cannot deliver on them. This is not a criticism of them so much as a statement of fact and an encounter with reality.

Noticing disconnects, such as this, can be challenging. Someone can easily say “I am very enthusiastic and extremely interested in ABC” and then utterly fail to attend or engage with any of it when the opportunity arises. Sure, they may have changed their mind, or been taken by life in another direction. No problem. But spotting the disconnect is essential if you want to accrue the benefits of being a professional noticer.

Of course, and this is very important, professional noticing also requires us to take the plank out of our own eye before trying to remove the splinter in another’s. Professional noticing is about looking inward as much as outward, and that is something not everyone wants to do…

Problems, obstacles and crises are gifts from God. They are chances to learn, develop and grow. Naturally, there will always be arguments about what growth should look like and how lessons should be learned. But more and more there is the attitude that there is in fact nothing to learn. It is now fashionable for people to demand that everyone else needs to change, so that they can stay the same. Nothing good will come of that…

It is hard for anyone to look truthfully at their own life. But the repeated refusal to do this is not the sign of an optimist, but of the deluded and irresponsible.

Of course, their attitude is understandable. Maybe there is a fear of the pain or hurt that self-examination might cause. But ignorance, especially when deliberately chosen, is a curse with a slow acting poison. Once you let one deceit in, you have made a nest for a thousand other lies to call home.

Professionally noticing makes you wiser, stronger, and more able to help others. It is not merely the act of observance. You have to want to see, to want to know what is really going on in the world. And that takes courage, because when you find out what is really going on you will have disrupted the hold that others have over you. And they do not want that...

Noticing is not just about gathering information, because more data always means more delusions. Developing the skill of noticing is part of a journey away from ignorance toward awareness. Maybe you never arrive at full awareness, but benefit comes to all those who try because life gets better the more you ask, ‘what is this?’ When we do not ask these questions, particularly of authority figures and experts, we place ourselves at their mercy.

If you professionally notice you will be able to see the future more clearly and interact with the present more confidently. Maybe professional noticing is born of fear, a need to scan the environment for threats. Or maybe its born of greed, the desire to spot prey and opportunities. But where it starts is less important than where it ends, because those who notice have richer and more interesting lives than those who run as mere consumers of other people’s opinions. Professional noticing breeds a wide breadth of knowledge and ultimately produces tolerance and a greater acceptance of all life’s diversity.

Ignorance is the root of much of the trouble in the world. Those who are unable or unwilling to notice what is going on around them will tend to repeat the errors of their past. Refusal to notice – to stick our heads in the sand and pretend that tough calls do not have to be made – restricts our life chances and denies opportunities to those who come after us. Western society is as guilty as hell on this count. It does not want to see, because it does not want to act…

Sometimes ignorance or the failure to notice can be blamed on circumstances. But the guidance of the Universe is always available to everyone, even though we are often not available to it. So, the future of those who choose to remain with their eyes wide shut, despite every wake-up call, is easy to read. Regardless of their personality, ancestry, education, status or life path their situation can only get worse.

Photo by LOGAN WEAVER on Unsplash