Focus

Concentration requires focus, that is, solidarity in engagement. While we often fool ourselves in thinking that multi-tasking allows us to get more done in a certain time allotment, the reality is narrowing our focus to employ our minds to one task at a time maximizes efficiency. Efficiency optimization is not necessarily the goal all of the time; we do not ask ourselves how to efficiently take a quiet walk through the woods or how to efficiently listen to music. Efficiency is often a noble endeavor, but not always. Focus, however, is nearly always a good endeavor. Perhaps one event in which it would not be would be if one were trying to illuminate an entire room through employing the narrowness and focus of a laser beam. Focus, here, would be inefficient and bad. However, in normal experience, focus is good. Michael Jordan did not become one of the greatest basketball players by distributing his time and energy equally to every major league sport (except a small slice of the pie to his misadventures in baseball). Steve Jobs did not become a mastermid CEO of a empire-status technology company by spending half of his time playing table tennis. Instead, ‘esteem’ and rigor for these men were achieved through narrowness of focus, and singleness of mind. A narrow chasm may be easily leapt across with adequate long-jump skills but I fear for the man who falls in a narrow chasm, for through time (though not deep time) and persistence, the narrow stream at the bottom of the narrow chasm has carved quite a deep chasm. There are plenty of shallow streams around, and the shallower they are, the louder they usually are in troubled water. Yet, deep chasms are rare, but beautiful.