Most people hyper-focus on distractions and ignore intentions.
They prefer the short-term, comfortable benefits of cheap dopamine over the long-term benefits intentional focus uncovers—namely, meaning and purpose. If you're interested, here's my Cold Exposure protocol to naturally enhance dopamine levels and minimize cheap dopamine.
No better story underpins the psychological meaning of this than the story of Adam and Eve:
God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and said to them: "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat."
Side note: is there anything more abundant than eating from every tree—for free?
Then God said: "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it"
The snake then convinced Eve not only to eat the fruit, but to shift her focus on what she was lacking.
This caused them both to get kicked out of the garden and in turn, they lost the abundance surrounding them.
When we focus on lack, we overlook the tremendous abundance in and around our lives—and even risk losing it.
Here are some ways this shows up in our lives.
- You finally have time for yourself, but notice yourself not accepting the present moment as it is. This creates a subtle agitation inside you, wishing for something to be different so you can finally be at peace. Yet you fail to realize that your ego is secretly at war with The Now—in fact, that's how it survives. The agitation propels your mind into a future scenario that you now convince yourself needs to get done for you to rest and be at peace. Your mind convinces you something is lacking, causing you to overlook the ocean of peace in the background of your experience, which is present—here and now.
- Suppose someone is hyper-focused on the resources lacking in their scientific project. In that case, this can lead to being less creative and resourceful by the very nature of the fact that lack places you in an unresourceful state.
- Imagine you lack social interaction (loneliness), which preoccupies your mind. You've created an identity around the belief that you will always be lonely, which is "just how it is." One evening, you find yourself at a dinner party, but your hyper-focus on what you lack (social interaction) now keeps you from having social interactions at the dinner party.
- Say you have a business but aren't making any profit despite being in business for three years. Rather than appreciating the opportunity you have to disconnect your revenue from your time and all of the other beautiful things running a company offers you, you hyper-focus on this one aspect. This causes a rift in your marriage since your wife is never a top priority, your relationship with your extended family disintegrates because you are ashamed to answer the question "How's work?" and you're now hiding from people out of shame and defeat, keeping you from creating the business relationships your business depends on. All because of your hyper-focus on lack.
I would go so far as to say we are in a spiritual battle with distraction.
Scripture states: the thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. John 10:10
Lack is the thief, and it's here to:
- Rob you of peace.
- Kill the future version of yourself that you could become when you commit to following your dreams.
- Destroy your vision and dreams.
The understanding that forces are coming our way that are beyond our control elicits tremendous subconscious fear and anxiety in us.
Examples of these can be biological, existential, political, and so on.
Therefore, it requires conscious effort to create a counter-veiling force to push back the fear, greed, envy, and hatred that have the propensity to grow in the subconscious in the face of these forces over which we have no control.
So the vital question arises:
- What are you going to attend to? What types of judgments go into what we attend to?
As Simon Weil says: "what we attend to says so much about who we are."
You'll notice there are things in life you encounter that grip you. They absorb your attention in an effortless manner.
These things propel you to become a different version of yourself because pursuing them is a call to adventure. This is a call from destiny itself, and if you follow it, you will uncover meaning and purpose.
But the thief is always nearby, ready to divert your focus from intention to distraction. It's preferred weapon of choice—lack.
I invite you to become mindful of the aspects of yourself that hyper-focus on lack. Notice when lack arises in your mind.
Notice the forms of lack that you experience.
When it does arise, intentionally commit to shifting your focus to the abundance right before you.
Ask yourself right now:
- Where am I placing my focus?
- Is my focus where I want it to be?
- What is the quality of my focus?
- Do I know what my intention is?
- Where do I want to place my focus instead?
Love and Power,
Alex