v27.3: Focus

Good morning folks,

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Focus:

the concentration of attention or energy on something

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It is so easy to lose focus on things that matter in life.  We have all thought we had thing under control only to find out that the only thing we can truely control is ourselves.  Have you ever heard someone say "You made your bed now lay in it"?  I used to get this from my parents when I was just a wee lad.  It simply means that the mistakes you made created the problem or put you in the situation that you are in; you need to figure out the correct way to fix or solve the problem you are facing since you, yourself made the choices that put you there to begin with.

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Isn't the world fun?  There are all these little sayings that mean different things that have been passed down through generations.  Most cases the meanings have been preserved but in some cases the meanings have changed completely.  Imagine someone from another culture learning our English sayings?  If you told them to lay in the bed they made, they would most likely take that literal and go and lay in the bed they made.  Our society is built on sayings and proverbs and we tend to quote them to avoid just coming out and saying what we mean.  Rather than telling someone "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" you could simply say "be happy with what you have or you could end up with nothing".

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I digress on that, I find it funny that we have built up these proverbs over time and we continue to use them.  Some of us use them and have no idea what they mean; we have vague ideas but most of us have truely lost sight of the real meanings behind them.  We've lost focus.

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There are many ways we can lose focus in our lives.  I've had many instances in my own life where I've had lapses in "focus" (sanity) and have done some really stupid things; we all have.  As Human Beings it isn't enough that our parents told us the stove is hot, we have to find things out for ourselves.  Your parents probably told you something about money growing up and said something like, "Don't spend it all in one place" or told you to save it for a rainy day.  These are small tidbits of information your parents were trying to relay to you; some life experiences if you will.  Unfortunately the life experience never is passed on properly and children are sometimes forced to repeat their parent's mistakes.  Of course if you go back to human nature, there are some people who fall into the same traps their parents did because they had to figure it out for themselves.  I believe the majority of the human race is born intelligent, they just choose to be dumb.

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Of course I am not exempt from mistakes or bad decisions.  I've made my fair share and I've repeated many of my parent's mistakes.  That said, I am a healthy 30somthing year old father of 3 so it is hard for me to say my parents made any mistakes.  Yes they are human and "to err is human" but when you look at their lives and all they accomplished with their three children and then look at those children and see what they accomplished; it is hard to call any of that a mistake.  We've had good times and bad times, close calls and near misses but at the end of the day we're all happy and close as a family.  There are just some things money can't buy.

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I can't stress enough the importance of focus.  Focus is what allows us to accomplish our daily tasks.  Focus allows us to concentrate on something and get 'er done.  Focus allowed Luke Skywalker in his X-Wing fighter to make that precise hit to the Death Star's exhaust port which was no bigger than a womp rat.  Without focus, we would be lost.

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Well folks, I've talked enought about focus for one day.  Now it is time for me to focus on my job and get through this day.  There is something about the last day of work before some vacation time that makes it want to drag on.  Tomorrow is Canada Day and hopefully the weather will be nice enough to take part in some Canada Day events and make it out to some fireworks.

Until next time...

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Cheers,

Al