But in my story that attention was relatively easy. It was with an object that I liked.
Again, I question this -- learning to listen to a few notes, when you're at the point of playing solos, requires letting go of your immediate ambitions and learning to do something you know well as if you are a beginner.
Learning to sit on a cushion and follow your breath -- you really are a beginner. There's less ego to put aside.
It seems like a stupid thing to do at first, granted, but you haven't spent years learning to sit on a cushion and follow your breath the wrong way.