This is a practice that will save your ass in any situation. On the grossest level, Paying Attention allows you to take note of your surroundings and act accordingly: Is your boss singing that tune about meeting quotas again? If you're Paying Attention, you can nod your head at the right times during the spiel and avoid being singled out from the workers who are clearly not listening.
On a subtler level, Paying Attention lets you assess what others are actually saying; you deduce a truer meaning by Paying Attention to words, tone, body language, and even clothes. When you ask your wife how her day was and she says, "Fine," should you leave it there? If you're Paying Attention, you'll notice that her monosyllabic answer could have been swapped with a much stronger four-letter word and the tone would have been equally appropriate. You'll also see that her umbrella is broken, her hair is sopping wet, her new coat has been splashed with mud, her make-up is running, and there's a twitch in her left eye. Maybe you should have Paid Attention more carefully and not asked how her day was in the first place. Idiot.
Even subtler, Paying Attention lets you mark your own words, thoughts, and actions. Many good athletes Pay Attention to their own bodies so they can prevent injuries before they happen. A good philosopher or saint will Pay Attention to her/his own thoughts and speech in order to avoid mental gymnastics.
An anecdote:
A person lamenting the trajectory of the United States recently told me that people who use cannabis in any capacity are wrong on moral grounds because it is against the law. This person, ignoring laws that do sanction its use as a medicine, went on to say that laws prohibiting prayer in public schools are morally wrong and so are laws that sanction abortion and euthanasia. My own opinions on these matters (and yours) are irrelevant. What does matter is that by Paying Attention, we catch that in one instance the law is a moral standard to which this individual appeals, but in others the law is in violation of a moral standard.
This logic works at Thanksgiving. It doesn't work if you want to be taken seriously. This individual's lament shouldn't have appealed to the law's morality to begin with--the "even subtler" level of Paying Attention would have made this possible.
The LSAT and zazen are two ways to develop your faculty that Pays Attention. The LSAT requires you to identify an argument's structure. This is done by seeing how each piece of information fits together and whether or not the whole of it makes sense. (See anecdote.)
And zazen permits you a head-space to discover exactly what your opinions are, what their source is, and whether they are coherent. Paying Attention via zazen is an especially helpful thing to do when you feel frustrated or angry about something.
Whether you're strolling through the park at night (gross), chatting up an attractive fellow or lady at the bar (subtle), or sharing your (un)solicited opinions on ethics and morality (even subtler), you'll reduce humiliation if you Pay Attention.