Come with me on an exploration of self-discovery. On this podcast we decipher what

really matters as we unravel the chaos of day-to-day work to learn how to build

an essential life. Welcome to the What's Essential Podcast. Welcome essentialists

I'm your host Greg McEwan. Stop for a moment. Every time I say that I need to

stop myself, take a breath. Are you here right now? Is your focus on this podcast?

Or is it roaming somewhere else to the past, to the future, to your worry, to your

to-do list, to your phone? So whether you are simply browsing, talking to friends,

or trying to stay focused in an important meeting, you can't seem to manage to hang

on to your attention no matter how hard you try your somewhere else. The consequences

of that is that you miss out on 50% of your life, including the most important moments.

Essentialism at the cutting edge of execution means asking one question. What's important

now? The complication is that we often aren't paying attention in this moment at all

and the implication of that is that we can completely miss what matters. Now the good

news, according to a marvelous new book, is that there's nothing wrong with you. Your

brain isn't broken. The human brain was built to be distractible. And even better news

according to Dr. Amishijar, you can train your brain to pay attention more effectively.

And the best news is that by the end of this episode, you'll be able to do that in just

12 minutes a day. So I've invited Dr. Amishijar to be on the podcast today, to help us

make good on that promise. Dr. Shah, welcome to the What's Essential Podcast. So great

to be here. Your book, Peak Mind, is just marvelous. It's been received superbly all over

the world. You're an advisor to world leaders, no less. It's marvelous to have you. Can

you just give us a sort of readers' digest version of your life so birth till this

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