How to focus on the focal point

Every now and then, I have a person tell me they need to focus.

Well, thanks for that information…. I guess the message is that since I am as blind as a bat, I simply don’t seem to need to focus as much as they do — well, at least that is one way to read it.

Another way to read it is that it is an authentic message. I do not believe it is authentic in a literal way (because in its incompleteness it is meaningless — it is simply not possible to focus without focusing on something in particular). The best way I can think of to interpret this message as an authentic statement is thus: I am overwhelmed by noise, by complexity and by chaos. I cannot do anything other than what I am doing right now. I cannot think about any other ideas than the ideas I am thinking about right now. I can not, I can not, I can not.

One good metaphor for this approach might be the workhorse with blinders on, and the horse is pulling the little engine that could up the hill because the horse understands that the engine is broken, lifeless and simply can’t. The horse has taken it upon itself to pull the whole train over the hill out of its love for the children on the other side — and therefore it is an act of heroism, and it bravely puts on blinders in order to stay focused on this task.

Although this is a beautiful metaphor, I have never heard of a horse that was in reality capable of doing this. In my opinion, it would be more realistic to simply move the mountain.