I learned a powerful concept this morning. In life we experience struggle. It is inevitable. You could be doing great things, or bad things, and sometimes challenges will just come our way and we will have to deal with them. Despair it seems comes from dwelling far too much on the circumstances of our lives. We get tunnel vision, our view of the world becomes restricted and our perspective narrows until all that we can see is the problems before us. The minutia of our given circumstances.
The way to lift ourselves out of despair is to change our focus from the overwhelming circumstances and instead consider what our lives are focused on. The higher the ideal, the greater the magnitude of the focus the greater opportunity we have to experience real joy in our lives. In essence Joy is Focus. Understanding our focal point, having a true mission in life, allows us to look past the circumstances that plague us and see the future state, one that if we accomplish will feel great about ourselves.
I imagine that the more true, the more accurate, the better the target the greater the reward would be. However, that seems like a very slippery and scary tunnel for me to dive down right now. I think I will just be happy that I have learned a new working definition for the quest to find joy in life. I can think of several analogies, I will try one from my Grand Canyon experience.
I hiked the Grand Canyon rim to rim with my Aunt one year. I was horribly out of shape and it was quite an undertaking for me. I remember the day when we started having to hike out of the canyon. You could see before you this very intimidating series of switch backs and the entire trail was visible for a while and it was just overwhelming. Now, with this hike and in life I had two choices. I could focus on the details (the circumstances of the hike I was on) or I consider what I was trying to accomplish and what that would feel like when finished. The morning we started heading up the trail to get out, I was tired. My stomach hurt, I had blisters on my feet, I had a small rat looking creature trying to get into my sleeping bag all night that kept me awake. The sun was already overhead, It was hot. My pack was way too heavy and the people I was with were also struggling and complaining a bit. I had a moment there when I was really overwhelmed by the circumstance, but then I had this thought. I have to climb out of here, and I am certainly not going to hitch a ride on a mule train. So I decided to imagine what taking the last step up the canyon would feel like, what walking into the visitors center would be like and ordering a snack or even just a cold water.
With my perspective altered and my attention on my focus, I started climbing out of the canyon. I ended up doing much better despite the parts of me that were in pain. I carried extra weight to help others and I led the group up the trail. All the circumstances were still there, but I had changed what I was I paying attention to and that was all the difference. Several years later, I believe I could run the canyon from north to south and then back again in the same day. Interesting how powerful a future vision can really be. Armed with the right focus and you can take on any challenge, rise to any level, overcome any obstacle and vanquish any foe.
Perhaps the purpose in life is to find Joy, and if it is, the way to get there is by considering what your focus is.
Guy Reams (652)
