Concentrate on the same thing for a long time

Focus, focus, focus...

I remember a childhood story from my fourth-grade religion study book. A boy named Bopedev was very adamant and indifferent to studies. His parents couldn’t tame the unruly boy anyway. They sent Bopedev to a saint to teach him some lessons.

Unfortunately, the saint couldn’t educate Bopedev as well. At one point, Bopedev got disappointed in himself. He could hardly concentrate on his studies. One day, Bopedev was roaming around in a village. Suddenly, he came across a pond stair and saw a deep hole in that. He was a little bit surprised, as the stair was made of stones. It was quite unlikely that only a specific spot got eroded, and the rest were still alright as new!

After a while, a lady came to the pond with a pitcher. She put the pitcher on the stair-hole and started to bathe there. When she was done, Bopedev asked her, ‘Good lady, I am wondering why this stone-stair has got a specific hole underneath your pitcher’s bottom? The hole seems to fit your pitcher on an exact measure, seems like your pitcher has made this hole instead!’

‘You are right, my son!’ The woman replied. ‘I am keeping this pitcher on the exact place for the last twenty years. After so many days, the stone surface has eroded and created this hole. So technically, this hole perfectly stands my pitcher on the place.’

Bopedev was utterly surprised. If a mere pitcher could create a hole in the stone, just by scratching the surface for a long time, why a man can’t concentrate on studies with commitment?

As far as I remember, Bopedev got so moved by the incident that he became one of the greatest scholars of his time – obviously by no magic. He incessantly kept on trying to concentrate on his studies for a long time, and things started to pay off gradually.

However, I didn’t want to put such a long intro in today’s article. I am myself suffering from a chronic lack of focus for the last few weeks. Even my regular meditation is not helping me (usually I find meditation pretty handy for a concentration panacea).

I have read some online solutions like focusing on one single goal for a long time. Or alternatively, work on ‘one goal at a time.’ This sounds quite cheesy to me – nobody can focus on only one task for a long time. Or perhaps, they can, and that single ability distinguishes successful and abortive individuals.

For me, I should organize my job and streamline what to do in the next few days. My broad and specific objectives are somehow disoriented right now. I need to align my short-term goals with the long-term vision.

Our focus usually nudges the pre-frontal cortex while thinking about a particular task. If we keep on thinking on several wavelengths – like writing a report and talking over the phone, those two may jumble up and make everything a mess. On the other hand, there is some ‘back of the mind’ works like listening to music (not always, some songs demand your full concentration time to time) or breathing; we can comfortably work on something serious while performing those activities.

I have a disgusting attitude of losing interest in something after a while. I just pray, this time I don’t end up like before.