Lack of Focus: Lack of Success?

In a posting on Deepak Chopra’s website, chopra.com, Karson McGinley writes about focus in an article titled “Intention, Attention, No Tension: 3 Tips to Master the Law of Attraction.”  McGinley discusses the Law of Attraction which is a motivation premise of you get what you focus on in life regardless of whether or not you believe this to be a positive or negative situation.   If the Law of Attraction is based on focus, how does the lack of focus impact what a person wants in life? I’ve linked to the article above because McGinley’s three steps are really part of the overall goal of how to focus.  The steps highlighted were: set your intention, focus your attention, and release tension.  The first two steps were sort of basic to anyone who has studied the law of attraction mindset.  The third, however, was very intriguing to me: release tension.  Now, why would this be helpful in a situation where focus is imperative?

In today’s world, we expect everything to happen on our own timetable or schedule.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve started a diet plan or some new healthy something only to have failed by lunch when my goal of losing ten pounds wasn’t achieved.  (I didn’t say the goal was realistic, did I?)  Release tension really means to give “it” – whatever “it” is – time to actually occur.  McGinley uses a cake baking analogy to illustrate her point: “Think about it this way: When you’re baking a cake, you first decide what kind of cake you want to bake. Then, you focus on choosing the ingredients and putting them all together. But it doesn’t become a cake until you put it in the oven and leave it alone. Staring or poking at it won’t make it bake any quicker; in fact, it may just make you frustrated. Instead, go about your life, letting the cake bake in the oven, with absolute certainty that it will be ready when the timing is right.”

What does this mean in a practical application? If one focuses truly on what their intention is, and then releases their focus to move on to the next “thing” for the day, does releasing one’s focus guarantee success? The cake-baking analogy is a good example of focus and impact.  It isn’t enough to set the intention of creating a delicious treat for a party and then put the dough into the oven; if you aren’t focusing on the cake, you’ll have a  charred mess.  One might argue that the focus wasn’t ever released as indicated in step 3 because the focus on the baking time was being monitored using the technology of a timer.  Therefore, the real reason we were able to release tension and go about doing something else is because we had some other form of monitoring (focus) on our behalf using technology.  One might also delegate the monitoring of a cake being baked to a junior chef in a restaurant or to a child using his/her Easy-Bake Oven.  Regardless, the intention of baking a cake was realized through the ongoing focus on the cake until the intention was completed; the use of technology aided in achieving this intention. One was able to achieve the release of tension through delegation of one’s focus to a timer.

Timers, like any other tools designed for monitoring, are prevalent in today’s world as a quasi-calendar.  Many times, I leave for my day having set up the Crockpot with dinner.  Our meal is completed mid-day and I set the oven timer to remind me to turn off the appliance once dinner is finished.  In this case, too, the timer is “focusing” on the intention of having a delicious dinner so that I can do other tasks that cannot be delegated to the oven timer.  If you think about the equipment in our daily lives, just how many of our “toys” are used assume our focus or to wrangle our focus away from us?  Many times, the delegation of focus is intentional through technology like a timer or a baby monitor.  However, one still needs to take action to remove the cake from the oven or to act on the result of the monitoring.  In the case of a timer, the action is deliberate because the timer was set with the intention of monitoring the cake.  In essence the monitoring of the baking process is its own type of focus, isn’t it? Or, focus-within-focus?

Now, follow along and focus with me on this little nugget.  How much of your focus do you actually squander? And, if the Law of Attraction relies on focus as a key factor to success and achievement, how does the lack of focus in any given situation impact your success?  We have all kinds of activities that suck up one’s focus.  Electronic devices come to mind where we become so absorbed in the information available at our finger tips that we cease to see what is around us.  These are really tools to be more productive but they can hog your focus, too.  I recently saw a video while squandering my focus on some social media site where a father on a playground was so immersed in his phone that someone actually could kidnap his small child playing on the swingset with out his being aware.  (Note: I didn’t intend on squandering my time as my intention was to conduct research.  However, after my tenth puppy video, I realized my intention was no longer my focus and course-corrected.)  Constructed as a social experiment, the mother of the child had concerns that the father was not paying attention to their child at the playground.  This video depicts the father being unaware as his child was spirited off the playground.  Can you imagine that, in real life, this occurred because you just couldn’t wait to “like” someone’s vacation photos?  Your intention of keeping your child safe did not have the proper focus, did it?

Like the stories of people driving off roads because their GPS told them to “turn right” into a lake, the lack of focus in this case could have life or death results.  Awareness of one’s focus – where it is and where it isn’t – may be the key to success with any intention.  The idea of releasing one’s focus, however, may be as simple as timing and common sense along with being reminded about just what is the intention of the action. “I’m not going to look at my phone while monitoring my child on the playgound.  Monitoring the safety of my child is the reason I’m sitting here.” Or, “I’m not going to turn right into this lake because my intention is not to drown today but to arrive at my friend’s house for her birthday with my delicious cake.”

Intention and focus go hand-in-hand and, while we may be doing both as a subconcious activity due to the routine nature of the task, the monitoring of the intention still requires focus even if delegated to a timer.  In this, then, intention and focus appear to be aligned and the release of tension is more subjective to each situation.  I wondered if a person can have two different intentions that require the same focus and does expected outcome allow for the “release of tension” identified in McGinley’s step 3? Let’s look at the playground situation again.  If Dad is at the playground, his focus should be on his son as his intention is to monitor his son’s safety, isn’t it?  Or, can the intention really be to have a good time at the playground with his son?  In this second situation which is really the same as the first, the focus becomes his son and not the nature of safety.  Having a broader intention of enjoying his son’s company in play also has a safety monitoring component while also creating the positive energy in the Father/Son dynamic.  Both also have the same result but tension is released at different points.  In the first scenario, tension is released when play is finished; the second scenario may have no tension at all because of the nature of the intention.

Can you feel the difference in energy of the two different situations?  If the intention is to keep his son safe, the man focuses on the “what ifs” and the dangers of an unattended child in the playground.  However, if the intention is having a good time with his son, his focus is on his son and the affect is his son’s safety from a predator.  Both result in the same situation but each has a very different feeling. In the latter scenario, one can release tension through the joy of play without any expectation of a result because the result is a by-product of the correct intention and focus.  And, I’m highlighting the term correct because the entire concept is subjective.  The variable that is you creates the complexity in intention.  Strive for a good feeling, and your intention may just be a enjoying the playgound with your son and experiencing his childlike sense of wonder with the same abandon.