Focus – A Journey

 

I was never a focused person. I remember meeting someone for a meeting first time and getting feedback that she was disappointed by how disorganized I looked. Initially, I thought, it was because of the way I dressed, or how I looked, or spoke, or maybe a combination of those. As time progressed I realized it was none of these things.

When I met this person, I had been juggling a lot of responsibilities and struggling with it. The struggle showed in the way, I carried myself. She was just candid enough to say it.

My learning on focus then was simple- If life throws lemons at you, you will not be able to make lemonade unless you know how to make it. Give yourself time.  When everything comes falling on your head, a sermon on focus seems farcical.

Even though I don’t like to accept it, my friendship with focus began recently on my spiritual journey. During the lockdown, in growing loneliness, I turned to my faith to get me through the anxiety. I started the meditation as a habit for 21 days first and then kept doing it every day till I completed the goal I had kept myself. (yes I had a goal for meditation). One that was done, I realized I could maybe replicate the same model in other areas of my life. Hence began the writing journey.  There were a couple of learnings from this

-         You will find something to focus your energies on when the time is right and when you are ready to do so.

-         You can develop your own model of focus which is absolutely replicable in other areas of life as well.  

-         You need not have all the answers from the beginning. Sometimes starting is what matters, rest everything falls in place.

The lovely part about focus is,  it always there is no certainty about it. One minute you are focused and another minute you are wandering in the lush green garden, and one hour has passed on Facebook. For me what worked was planning which involved everything.  Earlier I used to stress about ticking each one of the lists but then, I started giving myself some leverage.

Learning- Planners are made to help you and not enslave you. You don’t work for them, they work for you.

Focusing is an ongoing effort and no two days are alike, some start with heightened concentration and end with distractions and others when things don’t seem to start your way and then suddenly you let go, and everything ends up falling back in place.