The habit of habits

As I try to write this text, my son is watching the television at full volume.

My daughter wants me to play with her in the next room.

My wife needs help carrying boxes because we haven't finished organizing the house after the endless move.

But here I am, wanting to test the thesis of this text inspired by a phrase I heard today from Dan Koe: the focus is the habit of habits.

Let's review a typical day in the life of any man or woman in an urban environment. The alarm clock goes off. They grab and check their phone while still in bed. The alarm sounds again. They continue to check the messages and alerts that came in overnight on their phone. Finally, they get out of bed. They turn on the water to shower while trying to listen to the morning news. Eventually, they get in the shower. They get dressed while rechecking their phone. They walk to the kitchen to prepare a coffee. Work messages start to arrive...

This happens every day to a greater or lesser extent. 

If it's not things that come up, it's events that arise. When Dan Koe believes that for him, "focus is the habit of habits," it puts into perspective the multitasking times we live in. It's almost impossible, unless you have the mind of a Tibetan monk, to engage in an activity for 20 minutes without interruption.

For some strange reason, my son decided to turn up the volume on the TV. My daughter keeps calling me. I already told her I'll go with her once I'm done.

In the past, concentration was broken by the flight of a fly. Today, those flies no longer fly: they appear on our screens and in our heads like Dementors that drain our energy and steal our focus.

James Clear, the author of "Atomic Habits," has said in dozens of conferences that everyone wants to transform themselves but fails due to getting scattered in their own sea of distractions.

The consequence of a lack of focus is the loss of motivation. A snowball containing everything we now call stress, anxiety, and depression. A trap into which we voluntarily and permanently fall every day. Instead of treating our ability to focus as (part of) the cure for (almost) all our ills, humanity has decided to detonate it with thousands of explosive bombs in the form of messages, emoticons, advertisements, clickbait content, and pictures of all colors.

Twenty years ago, we started talking about channel surfing. Ten years ago, multitasking began to become popular. Today, that zigzagging between one thing and another is part of our modus operandi... for everything. Dan Koe's words resonated with me so much: "Focus is the habit of habits."

Focus is not only on producing at work but also on personal relationships, exercising, eating, walking, and even going to the bathroom.

The simplicity of doing just one thing is out of fashion.

The ability to focus is a superpower for some privileged individuals.

If you're in the process of transformation, review where your concentration is dissipating.

¡Vamos Carajo!

Fran Michavila