We need more narrow focus than narrow vision in our life. The former is the secret ingredient to a recipe for happiness, while the latter is a long winding fuse that blows up in our face.
Narrow vision is far easier than narrow focus. It takes no energy become someone who is ignorant, but it takes great discipline to avoid distractions and other good things in order to achieve what one sets out to achieve.
It takes a great deal of discipline to avoid distractions. From the moment we wake up there are millions of them. Nothing ever goes according to plan and every event is an slick opportunity for us to lose touch with desires. We can get pretty angry when someone cuts us off on the road to work. We get sucked in to all kinds of gossip at work or in our neighbourhood. We get angry over things we don’t have any business being angry about. And even those things we could get angry over are a distraction because we are not in a position of power to make any changes. We just spit at a fire, thinking we’ve made some kind of meaningful contribution.
It is easy to be distracted and much of it is outside of our control, although we do a pretty good job chasing shiny bright objects and wasting time all by our lonesome.
But the more you develop your narrow focus. The more you write down what needs to be done. The more you study and prepare for what is next, the less wider your vision in your life becomes. It’s strange but the less you do, the more you will reap, because it’s not about being busy, or looking like you’re achieving something, it’s about doing the right things, done for the right reasons that will make your dreams come true.
Dreams come true with narrow focus.
You need a dream telescope or a meaningful microscope in order to avoid the blurriness of seeing everything and in turn absorbing nothing at all.
In North America in other parts of the world we are fat. It’s true, because by I do my best to help out when I can. In other parts of the world, people are undernourished, because they don’t have a choice in their ability to nourish themselves.
Here we lack the ability to say no, and in turn rob ourselves of the ability to share. We lack the discipline to deny ourselves some things that in the long term can help us achieve greater things. A life that is better, more engaging, and more meaningful.
It comes down to our ability to focus. Our ability to focus on what needs to get done next. Not what we feel like we should be doing, not responding to the things other people want us to be doing, but actually getting at the things that need to be done. The great irony of all this of course is that it’s not even about doing anyway. It’s about doing the right things that support who we have a desire to be.
In the end all things will come to an end. All things that are built will be replaced, but our need to build in genuine and real. Our days are numbered, but what we do with those days is ours. We can either choose to be rain or be the storm. To be the wheels or the highway. To be ourselves, or live the unhappy life of a stranger.
Harness your power of focus. Avoid dead ends, and unnecessary storms of gossip. It’s in our best interest to build something majestic while we have a chance because despite the fact that it will never last, the generations coming after us, can only use the materials we leave behind, just like what we were gifted when we first arrived.
Cover photo generously provided by photographer Jaredd Craig.
https://unsplash.com/@jaredd_craig
