Focus/unfocus

First a couple of side notes. One if I was ever focused I would write down my ideas instead of mulling about not getting anything done. This title I still have some ideas for, however, there were some other ideas that dropped out of the brain and ended up in the vacuum cleaner after the better half cleaned up.

Second, is it me or have you noticed that the Old Testament is half about the Jewish people having faith and things going well for them, and then when they screw up, their world falls apart. There are some new headlines about Netanyahu being investigated for graft. Of course, this could happen to have something to do with the company he keeps.  (hint hint hint,  wink wink wink >a certain President). Just never know do we? Oops I forgot, this President is so attuned to being a righteous individual with evangelicals.  Somehow, something seems to be lost in translation for these guys. And you are not hearing people in the background screaming repent repent, just some observations on leaders who just don’t seem to be in touch with their Creator and the rest of us suffer the consequences.

Focus, everyone talks about it. You start hearing about it from your parents, your teachers, your coaches as you grow up. You go to work and bam your boss is adding to the mantra. It has a simple definition: — a center of activity, attraction, or attention; a point of concentration; directed attention : emphasis---

So why the big hoopla today? Focus can benefit you. You become better educated, you are a better athlete, musician, artist, writer (for some), business person, teacher, coach, Judge, elected official or representative, entrepreneur, leader, general, dictator, oligarch, criminal, computer hacker, and the list goes on. Focus benefits you in any realm or career or endeavor you choose. Lack thereof usually means you aren’t successful. Things can happen, bad luck, bad timing, bad circumstances, bad choice of something that doesn’t mesh with your talents and you will not be successful no matter how focused, yet overall if you are focused you will achieve some level of success.

And that tends to be a problem. People that have nefarious goals always seem to be more focused than someone who has idealistic goals or is magnanimous. Not saying it is always that way, yet on the surface it seems such. Greedy people never stop being greedy. They are always driving to have more. This drive causes them to act in ways that are not beneficial to others. And for some strange reason, people want to emulate them, or carry out their goals; not their own goals, the goals of the original greedy person. Yes, I know some of them hope to end up being as successful as the person they are emulating. Many though are satisfied to work in the shadows and work hard. Their focus is the master’s work, not theirs. One of humanity’s weird quirks. They subject themselves to activities that a person outside of the situation would consider dangerous. Many take on tasks that are illegal and immoral without regard to the consequences. History is full of examples. Nazi Germany being one extreme example.

An idealistic or magnanimous person focuses, yet focuses on an end goal not themselves. They do not look for personal gain. They look to achieve a better worldview. Mother Teresa for example. People commit themselves to these people also and work just as hard to reach the goal. Or do they?

And that is my question today. Where is the line drawn on what motivates someone to stay focused or “on task”? More often than not on a daily basis the nefarious goals supplant rational thinking, especially when it comes to controlling others or controlling events to their own benefit. This leads to a constant fight for control of humanity or against humanity.

And by and large the average person is unfocused which makes them subject to the focused person. More people would rather spend time in their world than worry about what others are doing even when they know and are presented information that shows this nefarious person is doing damage to their worldview.  Fighting these people takes a focused effort. Idealistic people though do not focus on this type of fight. The word idealistic tells you much. They have dreams, utopian ideas, a view of humanity through rose colored glasses, and tend to play down humanity’s worse traits. They may understand them, know there is a conflict, yet they feel they can be overcome with their worldview that others should share. And others do, yet since they are unfocused they do not step up to the level of someone like Gandhi or Mother Teresa. And I admit those are serious shoes to fill. There are others. We all have heroes. These heroes are human and have human frailties. The unfocused person does not make the effort that a greedy person for example can get from their minions even if they understand the goal of their hero.

It amazes the me the nefarious person can manipulate and motivate others to follow their worldview, create the focus on goals that benefits no one beside themselves. Whereas the people who want to do more, have genuinely good ideas that benefit a whole such as country, people or society, are torn to shreds in the public view. Their faults are crystalized by the enemies of these people and constantly attacked. No one spends as much time harping on the nefarious individual with success. And I am adding the phrase with success very purposefully. Trump, Koch brothers, Putin, Kim, Xi for example are constantly attacked in the media (Western) and depending or not if you have loyalty to these individuals you may consider them horrible people at some level. Yet, they are highly successful for their own gain. Their focus is razor sharp which for some unexplainable reason to me allows them to achieve high levels of success even though highly criticized or even ostracized in some circles. How do their efforts even with all the criticism achieve more than a logical person might think they should have? We need to know this answer. Yet they do throughout history.

Now focus does work in a general sense in the way we think it should. An athlete that works hard, concentrates on the basics of their sport, practices and focuses on every aspect of what needs to be done, rises to the top of their game or at least as far as their natural talent takes them. Players of equal or close to equal natural talent are separated by the athlete who focuses more on their development. This is good. Same goes for many other endeavors an individual aspires. And many people are focused on their goals that they do not pay attention to other people’s goals, which is partly why some nefarious people are successful. Some rely on attaching themselves to other successful people so they can radiate a false sense of security.

The goal then is to understand why people are focused, what do we gain from their efforts and learn to distinguish when focus is good and beneficial versus harmful and selfish. I do not want to take away from someone who works hard for themselves. I cannot distinguish this difference between good focus and when the greed takes over and changes the perspective. I wish I could. Somehow or another finding this in ourselves and making this work for all is important so that is why I write this evening.

I ask you to search your self and make determinations on a good focus for yourself. I want you to be successful. I just do not want others to use their focus to exclude others from benefiting in the big picture. This is one heck of an esoteric post, yet somewhere in all this is one of many answers that could help us all do well for ourselves and for humanity in general. Focus on it.  (I couldn’t resist)