Focus on what really matters

                          Do we Really focus on what matters to us?

Shey exchanges Caps with the Police

 If we had to ask more than 10 people to state clearly what is happening on the picture above, i bet you not more than two will be able to decipher the meaning behind it. When this picture was posted on facebook and some online forums, very many misleading messages came: For some it was a taboo for a Shey to exchange his cap with the Police, for some it was fun, for some it was the blend of culture etc as well as you readers now can have your own interpretations. Not saying that these interpretations are wrong, but usually we often ignore the main message and aims of souvenirs and go for the shadow.

In poetry appreciation there always what is referred to as the surface meaning and a deep meaning. The aim of the deep meaning is usually a call to our attention not to ignore nor forget the poet's intentions and go for the diction, devices, language etc

 

I am motivated to share on this topic "Focus" today because of two reasons, the birth of social media where people now use online forums to handle projects, share information/communicate etc and the way people handle development projects that lack sustainability. This is aimed as a gimmick for a second thought before we react.

The case is very common online when it comes to reactions towards postings that can describe us as shrewd. We delve into situations without a second thought sometimes because of the writer or because we think we master some subjects better than other as such distorting the writer's intention and message. Sometimes when we get the message, we end up getting sarcastic and personal leading us to lacking focus. Online forums are typical places of lack of focus also because have the keyboard and can type whatever we want irrespective of who we are writing/responding to. We suddenly become giants and our taste for respect disappearing into thin air at the same time. That is why i share Arthur Ward's view, It is wise to direct your anger towards problems - not people; to focus your energies on answers - not excuses.

 

The second worry where we lack focus is handling more than two projects at a time than we actually can. In this case projects now become adventures and not business. Experience has shown that any project not narrowed down can backfire and put us into more mess than what we actually want to achieve. Therefore focussing on one or two projects will give us better results than filling our hands with more projects. We become "Jack of all Trade" but master to none. Tony Robbins once said "One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular."

 This quote is better understood by believers because when you focus on being a blessing, God makes sure that you are always blessed in abundance.

In Life we have gone through periods of intense, driven productivity – months where everything fell into place, and our goals almost seemed to accomplish themselves. At the other extreme, there have been times in our lives where we were  completely overwhelmed, burdened by our different projects and responsibilities – and frustrated because so many of them not only challenged us, but didn’t matter to us. There were days  we have asked ourselves; how did we end up here?  Some of our projects are extremely important to us, some matter a little – and some simply don’t matter to us at all.

Steve Jobs even shared a similar view on this, "That's been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains." 

The compendium of this article will be crowned by a story shared by Junaid Tahir on staying focussed through the famous teacher and his pupils. He aluminates the premise of my article through the distractions around us that catch our attention while losing focus. I shall replace the original name in the story and use the name Bongaman to add some impetus for the meaning sake. Tahir starts his story by stating that while we talk about value and wisdom some degree of concentration is expected. Even while pursuing values, one has to have the same level of concentration, a single minded purpose and commitment in order to ensure that there are no slip ups in the journey. Being focussed on ones objective and goal is the sure way to be successful in life. 

"There is a story about a famous teacher, the teacher of all forms of warfare. He was teaching his students on the principles of archery. He called out his first student and asked him to arm the bow and prepare to shoot a distant target in the form of a toy bird. The objective was to hit the birds eye.
To each student, his simple question, before the arrow was released, was "What do you see?". Each student said things like "I see you Sir and my fellow students, I see the sky, the trees, the bird etc." Only Bongaman, who later became a very accomplished and expert archer, said "I see only the birds eye".
The teacher used this as an example with his students to explain the importance of focus. In order to be successful and accomplish ones goals, one has to have the same intensity of Bongaman. When one is distracted by other things, it is easy to miss the target."

 

Staying focussed is easier said than done especially when the mind is so fickle and there are so many distractions around. Yet, champions have a special ability to de-focus from the distractions and concentrate on the core objective. . If such a focus is achieved, one can scale great heights

Let's conclude this first part on focus by borrowing the words of Cameron Diaz

"I'm someone who loves to enjoy life and tries to focus on real things and real friendships. That's why I live very simply. I'm a jeans and T-shirt kind of girl. I don't spend much time fixing myself up or trying to look cool. I live like a normal person and even though I'm in a very high-profile business, I really don't let it affect the way I live."

To be continued if requested

By Shey Tatah Sevidzem (Wo Scandy)