Things today can get pretty crazy, however if you are grounded and focused, you can actually accomplish quite a lot.  Focus is the key to many things these days.  In Taoism, Buddhism, and Neo-Confucianism, they speak of a single-minded focus.  Single-minded focus, in itself, is somewhat difficult to achieve, but, with practice, you can find yourself able to center in on your desire without falling into all the myriad distractions that are always out there vying for attention.

To gain focus, I have developed an easy and relatively quick exercise for your ‘Focus Muscle’.  Think of a particular intention, item, or goal you are wishing to achieve or create.  Around that item, as you think of it, there will be other things popping up their heads and asking for their own bit of attention.  Rather than trying to negate these or otherwise ignore them — mainly because, you know that never works, rather it has just the opposite result and that is to bring that item to the forefront — what you need to do is to engage your internal spotlight.

Take a moment and just have a sense of what a spotlight is and what it does. Basically a spotlight is a really, really bright light that is used to show up what is most important in a given scene.  So, go within and just imagine a spotlight.  Play with it for a bit, and get an idea of how it works.  Once you are in control of that internal spotlight, it is time to put it to work.  Think of what it is that you are wishing to create in your life.  As you do, you will see those sneaky little distractions beginning to sneak up into the foreground.  This is the time to use your focus muscle and turn that spotlight on.  Send the beam of light to your true intention.  All the other stuff will disappear into the background, as your desire moves to the forefront.   There in the light is the thing that you are wanting to bring into your life.

This does not mean that the distractions are totally gone or that they have ceased, rather it is a way of acknowledging go to yourself that what is truly important is the intention that is having light shone upon it.  This need not be a long practice or particularly laborious.  Start with short intervals, and with time, you will discover that your “focus muscle” is much stronger, and little by little your real intentions take center stage.