And the Answer Is… ‘Focus’

I’ll bet you can’t guess my favorite word. Well, maybe you can, considering that I just gave the answer away in the headline. But all jest aside, the word and concept of “focus” does play an essential role in all our lives. In fact, I think focus is an underappreciated aspect of our lives, and our success in life.

If I had to identify a quality about myself, and a quality in others, that I am most attracted to, it’s the ability to focus attention on one’s thoughts and tasks. This may sound rather pedestrian, but it’s a lot harder to focus than you think, and the ability to focus is also a lot more critical to a good life than one might think.

Whenever I talk about the concept and importance of focus, I like to relate a little humorous anecdote that happened to me a couple of years ago, so please indulge me in telling it to you, right now.

I pulled up to my local Starbucks in my not-so-subtle, python green Porsche 911 twin-turbo cabriolet. Admittedly, this car attracts a lot of attention, sometimes wanted and sometimes unwanted (think Highway Patrol). Out front of the Starbucks, there was a cluster of teenage males who had paused their conversation to ogle at the iconic German sportscar.

As I exited the vehicle, the teens trained their collective gazes at me in an obvious attempt to assess the status of the owner (I know I would do the same). As I got closer to the entrance of the Starbucks, and closer to the teens, one of them initiated conversation by asking the following provocative question: “Sir, how do I get one of those?”

This rather bold, refreshingly honest and direct question was impressive to me, so I paused for a moment before I gave the youth the bold, direct and thoughtful response I thought his question deserved. My response was…

“Focus.”

The pithy retort left the teens speechless; however, by the expressions on their faces I detected their collective contemplation of my reply. Indeed, that was my intent, because I wanted them to think deeply about what is at the core of achievement. In this case, “achievement” came in the form of an iconic sportscar, but achievement comes in all shapes and sizes and through myriad material and non-material values that enhance our lives.

And true to The Deep Woods ethic of always thinking a few layers below the surface, I wanted these kids to start thinking about the root of achievement, and not merely the price of a car.

This incident reminded me of another question I received a few years ago from a friend who asked me to describe my personal “ethos” using just a few key words.

In this case, I knew my answer needed to be appropriately thought out to satisfy my friend’s curiosity. At first, I thought this task would be difficult. Yet, after just a brief period of reflection, I answered with the following three words…

“Focus. Integration. Celebration.”

Naturally, my friend demanded I amplify this answer, and so I went about explaining these “three pillars” of my personal ethos so that each concept would be simple and easy to understand. So, with your permission, I would like to do the same here.

Focus. The first pillar here is the most essential, as it also serves as a basis for all information processing, and for the application of the two other pillars of my ethos. Focus here means much more than just concentration. By focus, I mean focus in the wider, philosophic sense. Perhaps a quote here from my favorite philosopher and novelist, Ayn Rand, will explain what I mean by philosophic focus:

“In any hour and issue of his life, man is free to think or to evade that effort. Thinking requires a state of full, focused awareness. The act of focusing one’s consciousness is volitional. Man can focus his mind to a full, active, purposefully directed awareness of reality — or he can unfocus it and let himself drift in a semiconscious daze, merely reacting to any chance stimulus of the immediate moment, at the mercy of his undirected sensory-perceptual mechanism and of any random, associational connections it might happen to make.”

So, when I say focus is the first pillar of my personal ethos, I mean it in this sense. I mean it in the sense that whatever it is I am doing, whether it is writing, speaking, analyzing companies, reading, composing and playing music, horseback riding, weight training, martial arts, combat marksmanship, driving a race car, walking a dog or just petting my cat, I do it in a state of full focus. I do it with the full, volitional and conscious awareness of reality — in the moment.

You’ve no doubt heard about the importance of “living in the moment,” as it has become somewhat of a cliché in the self-help movement. So, let’s avoid this cliché, and just say that living in the moment requires that you live each moment in full focus.

Integration. The second pillar of my ethos comes after you’ve focused your mind on the facts and sensations of reality. Through the process of mental integration, you can categorize the facts, sensations and feelings you’ve experienced in that state of full focus and you can begin determining what they all mean and how they fit into your broader, and deeper, philosophic premises, such as the things you value.

For example, let’s say you focus your mind on something that is, on the surface, mostly a physical pursuit: weight training. Yet, is it mostly a physical thing? While the actual performance of the movements might be primarily physical, what you’ve likely already integrated before you decide to begin weight training is the fact that challenging your muscles with progressive resistance loads is a good thing for your physical well-being.

Your editor with his python green Porsche 911 cabriolet alongside friend and Porsche brand ambassador Tony Nguyen.

Indeed, the integration of higher-order concepts of “well-being” requires a long chain of philosophic integration that has to do with the value you place on your existence, your health, your appearance, the maintenance of your functional ability, etc. The wider point here is that the ability to focus on facts and integrate those facts into your philosophic matrix is the necessary second pillar of a rational ethos, and it’s one you must be consciously aware of if you are going to engage in the third pillar of this ethos.

Celebration. Once you’ve focused on reality and integrated those facts with your personal worldview, i.e., your personal philosophic premises, then, and only then, can you rationally indulge in the most pleasurable pillar — celebration. For me, celebration is the result of the focused integration of the concretes of reality and what they represent in my life. Staying with the weight training example, I know that a focus on facts means I need to weight train to stay in good physical shape.

Staying in good physical shape is a value to me because I’ve integrated the virtue of good health and the absence of disease in my life as rational values to pursue. And despite now being in my sixties, I am, for the most part, in excellent physical condition, largely free of disease, strong, flexible and fully functional. It is this combination of focused integration that permits me to celebrate this circumstance.

You see, when you live a life in full focus, and one in which you integrate the ideas and values that really matter to you, then and only then can you rationally celebrate your existence. It is this celebration, in all its glorious forms, that makes life worth living.

Whether that celebration is the pleasure of watching your children grow up, staring into the eyes of the person you love most and feeling that love come right back to you or something as simple as performing a set of intense barbell curls — when you live a life of focused integration, you can justly celebrate life in all of its forms.

Of course, this chain of higher-order concepts all begins with the decision to focus — and now you know why this is my favorite word.

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Jefferson’s Truth

“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”

— Thomas Jefferson

Honesty in politics is usually the first casualty of the profession. And no matter which side of the aisle the politicos reside, they all seem to spin answers to questions in a way that makes them seem guilty of truth manipulation even if what they’re saying is true.

In your life, don’t speak like a politician. Have the intellectual and moral honesty to speak your mind clearly, and without ambiguity, so that people know what you are and what you are all about. Life is too short for anything else, and respect for reality demands nothing less of us. So, in your book of life, make honesty the first chapter.

Wisdom about money, investing and life can be found anywhere. If you have a good quote that you’d like me to share with your fellow readers, send it to me, along with any comments, questions and suggestions you have about my newsletters, seminars or anything else. Click here to ask Jim.

In the name of the best within us,

Jim Woods