Focus

1.

For the past four/five years I’ve had a theme running. Here’s what I’m talking about, how it came around, and what it does should emerge as I express those two points:

The idea began with the recollection of how it felt to hear about a 26 year old when you were a 5-7 years old. I had a crush on a 22 or 26 years old and always believed I loved older women since then. She was kind to me as women who think a young boy is cute do; however as a young boy, this was a validation of everything the movie, “Big,” with Tom Hanks is about—there is some magical thing. As I thought about how 26 felt to a 5-7 year old, I then remembered how 30 looked. Woah – it was within reach compared to grandparents ages, but just outside the conception – 30? Jeez, I couldn’t wait to turn 10 and these people are in their 30s!

            This same narrative is essentially carried forward through the teenage and especially the 20s. In the 20s – the 30s loom, heavy with baggage from a thousand sources all bemoaning its existence. It’s all ridiculous really. Age is important, but we trace it beyond the scientific data of cell regeneration rates and begin right with the presumptions. I think people in mid to late 80s through their 100s (and maybe much sooner for some) feel this social weight acutely. The chasm they sit across is the distance we have from the thoughts of our own mortality and death.

            So as it goes, I began saying, “one inherits the earth at 30,” and was and continue to be massively excited by those crossing that threshold. There are murmurs of this positivity about aging here and there, and that’s good – the narrative of age must transition to one of appreciation for the unique experience each decade had the potential to bring along. The understanding of self plods along as we try and fly through these generations. Christ also began his work towards the cross at 30 according to Christian scripture; Buddha leaves at 29;Pope Innocent III authorized the St. Francis’ order when he was on the cusp of 30; St. Augustine was converted at 33 - though his roots come sooner.

            Conversely, I say that, “we give it back up at 80,” – the reason is that the generations that crossed 30 when we cross 80 will have more primacy in the minds of youth than we will – though the choices we make while we all inherit the earth set up the foundation for the next. These are, let me be very clear, simple psychological lines to make rudimentary pieces to construct conversations about experience and life. The ultimate expression of life is whatever it is breathing in you reading this, and it has its own agenda – this is just conversation.

           

2.

So we have 50 years where the world is hours – and each year I began following a theme, so that at the end of my short life, I could have words to say to a loved one – or at least have a story I can hopefully remember or care about; who knows, all my thoughts on dying are conjured from a lack of intimate knowledge and likely some kind of fear – not of dying necessarily, but of becoming an invalid—even the word—my goodness right, an “invalid,” we dismiss so much wisdom from our font of young pride.

            The first year was 2011: The Year of the Win.

The idea was essentially activity; that’s what I learned. If you actively lose you still win a lesson, but if you passively win you actually lose because you have no assurance of how to recreate it.

So that was the year of the Win.

            The second year was 2012: The Year of the Great.

The idea was essentially, 1) take your own advice 2) submit your eyes to Christ to perceive beauty over cynicism/ opportunity over impediment, and 3) allow your actions to be a language unto themselves.

            The way this worked that year was I would take time to actually write down the advice I gave myself and then make a plan for it—that is what I would advise anyone, so I started taking my own. Just basic shit – writing down what I’d like from each of the four quarters of the year, how I might be able to get that going, etc. It was a clear direction, and like Bruce Lee says, “sometimes a goal is just something to aim at.”

Submitting my eyes was an interesting one, and one that stuck fairly well since then – to see where the opportunity for anything is in an initially perceived impediment; to try and choose beauty over cynicism. These things are worked on continually and constantly with no gauge of perfection, only progress.

Lastly, it was my actions as a language – that one also persists and is very fun; if I am typing an email that says, “I’ll get that to you by…” I usually catch myself, assess my flow, and if possible just get whatever that later task is taken care of now. All of these need to be disciplined, refined, and scaled – but it’s progress.

The third year was 2013: The Year of the Rest & Respect.

This was great – 1) Complete the rest to gain the rest, 2) Respect the opportunities others are given, and 3) respect the opportunities you are given.

Complete the rest means wipe away the crumbs, do the extra work; finish what’s sitting on your mind so that you can actually take a break—gaining rest. The 2^nd and 3^rd are self-explanatory.

The fourth year was 2014: The Year of the Joy & Achievement Flows.

1) Be Patient, 2) Be disciplined, 3) Let it come and let if flow.

Let it flow was very important, because let it go indicates a pushing away, and the best things in life truly flow through us. Furthermore, studies on flow states support this theory.

The fifth year is this year, 2015: The Year of the Generously Focused.

1) Give listening, 2) Build resistance, endurance, and recovery, and 3) pick two.

Giving listening is very active, and I’m learning about all this now as we’re just rounding out 4 months in. Building resistance, endurance, and recovery is three separate states of stress and each has it’s own disciplines – these three categories allow me to figure out the optimal expression for each of the three states at any time during the day—that includes surprises, which are generally building resistance but can also become endurance. Recovery is actually a lot harder than it seems, but I’m learning all this now. Pick two is really that simple, I pick the next two things I’ll do. So in this case, finish this up and post this—I won’t even think much on image or no image and what image etc. I just have two things in front of me to do; I can think after that.

3. 

The whole thing is deliberate, and they way I come up with them starts 6 months into the previous year - and a lot of time, attentiveness, and prayer. So far, if I’m able to speak about the story of my life and what someone could take from it as I die, I would say, “Win great rest and respect. Joy and achievement flows, generously focused.”