Like most people, sometimes I get what I want—sometimes I don’t. But over the last few years I’ve become increasingly more fascinated with the reasons why. Why do I get some things only to come up short for others?
The simple answer might be that I shouldn’t expect to get everything I want. That’s just the way things are. And I agree.
But I also “believe” that there may be something else going on that is not immediately obvious—the knowing of which could turn the odds more in my favor—and yours.
Achievement and goal attainment might not solely depend on things like how difficult the goal is or how much talent you have or even how intelligent you happen to be. After-all, the world is full of relatively talentless, unintelligent people accomplishing extremely difficult things every day. Maybe then we need to add just a bit of luck and a dash of good timing to be on the safe side? You know, get all the proverbial ducks and their stars aligned.
This is starting to get complicated. Let’s review:
If we want to make our dreams come true we need to have gobs of talent, a fat IQ, perfect timing and stick a horseshoe up you-know-where. Right? It’s a wonder anything ever gets done! And yet that’s what most of us belief. We have been taught to expect that only a few of us will ever see our dreams come true. It’s too hard, too complicated.
But that’s not what our our greatest teachers and traditions have to say on the subject. Taking a closer look at my own life I’ve learned that all my successes always had one element present. That same element is also absent in all of my failures.
So maybe it’s not as complicated as we think. And it has nothing to do with happy thoughts or wishing really hard. What I’m talking about is something far more elegant, far simpler.
It’s focus.
Focus, by definition, is a narrowing process. Something starts out wide in scope then tappers to a fine point—a focal point and to the exclusion of all else.
All that we are, all that we will become is the result of focused thought. Christian tradition says, “As you think, so shall you be.” Buddha simply said, “We are what think”.
But thoughts are only the first part of the process. They have to be focused to hold any true power.
We focus our thinking in three stages:
First we have thoughts that we understand intellectually.
These thought are a bombardment of information from any and all outside sources: television, friends, family, books, events, you name it. As individuals we understand them for what they are—bits of data. They may be true, they may not. They may be useful, or not.
Then we have thoughts that we believe.
From the above field of information we begin to select that information we believe to be true or useful. We make these judgements and determinations by combining all the information we have both past and present. The thoughts are still unfocused as they are mostly derived from outside sources. They may sound good, but we’re not quite sure—yet.
Lastly we have thoughts that we know.
Our beliefs still carry a fair amount of unfocused baggage. A belief about a thought is only just that: we believe it might be true, but until it is focused we just don’t know. To know something is to have that laser sharp focus about it. We narrow the thought to a pin-point focus to which all else is excluded. With the focus knowing brings there is no room for fear or doubt. There is no room to tell us it’s not possible. We KNOW that is. As sure as we know that a candle flame is hot. And because we know that the flame is hot, we also know that it will burn us if we touch it. We don’t just believe it will burn us, do we? We know. And so it is.
The same thing happens when we focus on our goals. We have to know that they are going to happen.
Recall the last time you “knew” something. I mean really knew it. There was no doubt, no fear that it would not happen, right? It was almost like it had already happened. To know with this level of certainty has the power to create. And just not for our crazy dreams—this level of thinking is the foundation for our daily lives. Think about it. We know (for the most part) that we will get up tomorrow, go to a job that we don’t really like and then come home. And for the most part, it happens. It happens not because it’s easy or mundane, but because we have made it a part of who we are by the focus and attention we give it. The daily routines and patterns entrench the very knowing that gives us more of the same.
Focus. It can help you create either the exciting or the mundane, the good or the bad, the ordinary or the extraordinary. The only question is, what is your focus?