Yes/No To Everything Else
I think the art of focus is mostly based on strategy than any other aspect, although on an intuitive level, we may know what or why to focus on a specific thing, the how to focus is something that tends to elude us, especially in a world that's progressively distractive with a declining attention span.
Conventionally, I used to prefer creating a form of boundary that separates the essential from the non-essential, through saying no to everything else that doesn't align with core priorities and going full-on what truly matters.
Alternatively, this same approach can be time-based, in that at the beginning, the yes sign is placed on the door of the shop, and everything is welcomed, which brings along exposure to diverse experiences and opportunities.
Then later on and as we develop discernment, we begin to sculpt our days with intention rather than reaction, and our boundaries become more defined and structured.
In many ways, we transition from collecting experiences to curating them, and our choices become more aligned with our present core direction.
Black And White Problem
But what I've realized is that this binary switch misses the subtler shades between absolute yes and absolute no.
You could say this is the trade-off between depth and breadth in our life's journey, or between the comfort of clarity and the wisdom of uncertainty.
Because the moment you start saying a hard no, you tend to lose touch of the natural ebb and flow of opportunity.
In a way, our mind becomes rigid or a bit too fixated on what's right before our nose that we miss out on the bigger shifts that are also happening.
So I've learned to evolve the hard 'no' with what I call 'conditional maybes', which is basically a framework where access to my attention isn't barred but filtered through increasingly refined criteria.
Continuing with the shop analogy, you can think of it as a coffee shop that doesn't simply open or close, but adjusts its service based on the hour, the crowd, and the energy of the day.
Adaptive Focus
In practice, I tend to try to maintain a dynamic balance - keeping one eye focused on the horizon, anticipating future opportunities, while the other eye is attentive to the details immediately in front of me.
Or I can just switch between expansive exploration and targeted refinement. Some seasons, I'll cast a very wide net, exposing myself to diverse experiences and broad new information.
Other seasons, the lens is narrowed, diving deep into a specific interest or project for a certain period of time.
No doubt, the former is my favourite season; unexpected surprises and interesting challenges.
But arguably, it's in the latter when the true breakthroughs are achieved, those that actually move the needle forward, exponentially.
Here, the overarching principle is maintaining fluidity, adaptive focus dynamically based on the "needs" of the ever changing moment.
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