Focusing is a First-World Problem

If you've read anything about maintaining focus, you may recognize a common theme:?our minds weren't designed for modern attentional demands. And no, I'm not sure "attentional" is a word.

Back in the day, our challenge was navigating our environment for survival, not navigating an abundance of distractions.?

The world was unpredictable, and survival depended on prioritizing immediate concerns.?

Our hardwiring to focus on short-term issues was needed for survival in an era where saber tooth tigers, social gossip, and the common cold were highly relevant to our well-being.

This design, however, doesn’t work for today's environment, where information is abundant and EVERY-FREAKING-WHERE.

We easily get sucked into online arguments, feel anxious about distant events that don't affect us, and find ourselves endlessly scrolling past the point of enjoyment.

In a previous era, instincts about what to focus on was simple.?

Today, focus needs to be cultivated.

A life of focus means consciously choosing what to pay attention to. ?You know, like a ground-up would do:)

What a life of focus is not: it’s not about imposing a strict, discipline for discipline's sake, nor is it about squeezing every drop of productivity out of the day while avoiding all forms of enjoyment or entertainment. ?

That sucks.

In fact, the opposite is often true.?

You feel less pressure to overwork when you handle your tasks calmly and efficiently, and you can relax and enjoy your time off by engaging in hobbies and activities that make you happy.?

Focus isn't about force, but about choice.

But focus isn’t automatic.?

The gap between our ancestral wiring and modern attentional demands means that without good systems, we tend to fall into distraction and a frazzled state.

By the way, Billy Hofacker is a fitness instructor and personal finance coach and this dude is focused!? And if you've seen any of the examples I love using, you'd know that fitness and finance are my favorites for focus.? Yep, lots of f-words there:)

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