How Focus & Distraction shapes our future?

 

“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years”. - Bill Gates

We get easily distracted. It’s not only our fault. In this modern world, there are plenty of things which are there to distract us from what we were actually doing. We get to nowhere because we cannot walk on a single path. We jump from one to another multiple times. We do not trust our own decision. We do not have the discipline to stick to our own principles. We get frustrated, we get depressed. Why? Because we want the fruits right after planting a baby tree. We neglect the fact that trees need time and care to grow. It’s a natural phenomenon. This whole world is working on that basic principle. If the answer is that simple, then why do people lose focus? Why do they get distracted? Is it because this modern lifestyle is designed to distract us? Is it designed to keep us poor, mentally and physically unhealthy, and constantly suffer?

We all have heard the story of the tortoise and the hare. The hare loses the race not because he was not fast enough but because he was not focused enough. The tortoise wins because he keeps on moving instead of his slow speed and thus wins the race. That story was trying to tell us that the problem lies not in the capability of the hare to complete a task but in the consistency and focus towards completing it. We cannot keep going in one direction for long duration of time because we do not have the patience to wait for the plant to grow and fruits to ripen. We want instant gratification. We love fast food, fast service, and a fast-lane to millionaire. But fast foods are bad for health, fast service is seldom reliable and fast-lane leads to accidents.

Humans are not naturally born like that. We are designed by this modern world from the very first day of school. Perhaps the life of those little humans would have been far happier if he or she needed not to worry about his or her rank in the school. This society is paradoxical. It tells us to live in harmony but compete with each other at the same time. It admires the winners and despises the losers. The winners adore this society because they love to be seen and admired. For the remaining, this society is a parasite which keeps sucking the happiness out of their life. We all want to be the winners. We all want to be successful. We are so focused on success that we neglect the need to be focused on the path to success. We forget that Krishna told Arjuna to focus on the Karma, and not get attached to the outcomes.

Not all human bodies are equally strong. Neither are the brains. If the intelligent mind finishes a specific task in an hour, the less intelligent might finish it in one and a half hour. But we must notice the fact that the given task is completed in both scenarios. The capability to complete the task lies in both of them. The both of them have the potential to be the winners and be successful in life. But it cannot be guaranteed that any of them will have a successful life as he or she wishes to have. Then what is it that does not let them succeed? It’s not their potential to do the necessary work. It’s because they simply will not do it. One might ask, why? Because they lack the ability to decide their career path, and after that, the inability to be consistent and focused on their dream and destination. They get distracted. By what? In this modern world, its people, social media and true but unnecessary and fake information.

In terms of information, people and social media are synonymous nowadays. We are all victims of the universal disease called “smartphones”. It’s just one touch away. It connects you with people all around the world through internet. It’s a great escape from the reality. We have forgotten how we used to live without smartphones. Someone once said that ignorance is bliss. He was not wrong. Not knowing is beneficial sometimes. Our little brain needs not to know everything. It needs to know only those things that are essential to live a happy life. A soldier needs to know his duty, dos and don’ts but does not need to know what is happening in army level and diplomatic relations with foreign countries. If he was exposed to that kind of information, he is most likely to mis-understand or mis-interpret that information and would result in performance degradation. Our mind is like our stomach. If eaten good food, it stays physically healthy. Similarly for mind, if it is fed beneficial information, audio or visual, results in good mental health. Social media exposes us to that unnecessary overwhelming flow of information, and affects our minds unknowingly on the psychological level.

Let’s take an example to clarify this point. You have a small café in the neighborhood. You are earning a decent income. You want to expand your business someday all over the country and establish your own brand. You believe in your dreams. Suddenly, you have a desire to scroll the walls of your phone to find that some guy you barely knew bought a new car, and is flaunting it on the walls of Facebook and Instagram. He is a real estate broker, and is making huge load of money out of it. Your job currently is not paying you that well. That information you just saw on the screen of your smartphone has just been registered on your brain. Now, you also want to have that brand new full option car. Your motorcycle is working just fine, but you want that car. You want to be rich like him. Your current line of work has good future prospects, but why wait so long? Why not get into the real estate business yourself, and get rich fast just like him? Yes. Now you are distracted. You just lost your focus.

News, whether real or fake, leaves a certain kind of impression on our minds. Fake news is a tool used by evil minded people to play their propaganda, and distract or delude the common people. It definitely has negative effects on our mental health as well as our ability to take right decision. But real news is also not always beneficial for us. For example, the same guy with a café, when gets a real news that the tourism business is booming in the country, it has some effects on his mind. He starts thinking that directly dealing with tourists would payoff better than his café. Then, his dedication with the café begins to melt down. And he just lost his focus. He got distracted. The potential of that café to bloom as a brand all over the country is dead.

Wrapping up, one might think that not everyone is distracted by a single Facebook post, a news on an online portal or a suggestion of a friend. Perhaps someone has had a better fortune because of his career change. But that’s not the point of this article. The article aims to convey this message to the reader that choosing a career plan, sticking to the path, adding a mile every single day, consistent effort, discipline and a constant focus is the key to the success to every winner and achiever in life. If you do not know where you are going, that will get you nowhere.