Part 1
A Little Attention Please

If it’s always been hard for you to get the attention of others, to be heard, or to be followed, take heed. You’re not alone. Millions of people feel the same way. In fact, even people who have considered themselves to be assertive most of their lives are finding themselves being increasingly unheeded. Why? Because we live in an over-communicated, over-informed, overly noisy society in which everyone is having a harder time getting the attention of everyone else. I believe, and evidence is piling up in abundance, that we’ve reached the point in our socio-cultural evolution where people have too many things competing for their time and attention and that this diminishes their ability to effectively interact with one another. In English, it means you’ve got to be more effective at being heard and being heeded. The chapters in this section all focus on a central theme: the growing importance of developing effective assertiveness skills in a world that is increasingly unable to offer its full attention.