(Very) Quick One – Focusing On What's In Front Of You
There's been so much happening in my life lately. A "balanced" life comes in extremes it seems: nothing happens for months, then everything at once. But what doesn't change is the best strategy to cope with these different life phases.
From what I've learned, the best thing you can do is to focus on the thing in front of you. Yes, I'm basically talking about "being in the moment".
How I hated that statement some months ago.
Probably because I knew it was true. When you're in a difficult (or much worse: boring) phase of life, it's much harder to come back to the present. The brain has many coping strategies, and one of its favorites is to take you somewhere else in your mind. But this isn't a solution to the situation you're in. Being in an imagined reality in your mind doesn't change the circumstances of reality. It's as if the brain decides to watch a movie instead of quenching the fire of the burning house you're in.
The first step towards freedom is realizing your brain's conjuring up a movie. It's the hardest step, but not the most painful one. The most pain comes from accepting the situation you're in. But it's also the only way to make the pain go away. Ironically, going through the pain is what stops it entirely. Not acknowledging it is the worst strategy, though. Like a wound, unattended pain will fester and infect other parts of your life
Here's the good news: when you've gone through the pain, you will realize your fears were not real from the start. The brain pulled the same trick on you, but instead of imagining another reality, it imagined the pain to be much worse than it actually was. When you've come out the other side, you can do what will change reality for the better: taking action.
Which brings us back to being in the present. The more you can focus on what's in front of you, the right action to take will become clear. You cannot change your situation only in your head, because the only place you can change reality is in reality itself. So focus on where you're at – it will get you where you want to be.
