Essentialism (XXIX): Execute: Focus

"Life is available only in the present moment.  If you abandon the present moment, you cannot life the moments of your life deeply." - Thich Nhat Hanh

Greg McKeown starts this chapter with a story of Coach Larry Gelwix, who coached the Highland High School Rugby team to 418 wins, 10 losses, and twenty national championships over 36 years.  Coach Gelwix has a simple question which, conveniently, is a simply acronym for win as well:  "What's Important Now?"

This helps his players focus - instead of getting caught up in what just happened (the past) or worrying if they will win (the future), it helps them focus on the play they are in "right now" (McKeown's emphasis).  It also allows the players to stay focused on how they are playing:

"Larry believes a huge part of winning is determined by whether the players are focused on their own game or their opponent's game.  If the players start thinking about the other team they lose focus.  Consciously or not, they start wanting to play the game the other team is playing.  They get distracted and divided.  By focusing on their game in the here and now, they can all unite around a single strategy.  This level of unity makes execution of their game plan relatively frictionless."

Coach Gelwix makes a difference between being beaten and losing.  Being beaten means they were better than his team.  Losing means that the team lost focus on what was essential.

To operate at your highest level of contribution, says McKeown, we have to deliberately tune in to what is important in the here and now.

For the Essentialist, there is only the now.  There is not the past with its mistakes and errors or the future with its possibilities or worrying about the things we cannot control.  There is only being focused and present in the current moment and on what we are doing now.

He revisits the Ancient Greek concepts of time, something we have touched on before here as well:  chronos, the simple passage of time, and kairos, those moments in time that are right, opportune, different.  The way of the Essentialist is to tune into the present, into the kairos moments, to those things that are truly important right now.

To be focused is to be present in the moment.  To this end, McKeown points out that while some multi-tasking may be possible, what is not possible is multi-concentration or multi-focus.  We can only focus on one thing at a time.

So how do we focus?  How do we be in the now?

- Figure Out What Is Important Right Now: "When faced with so many tasks and obligations that you can't figure out which to tackle first, stop.  Take a deep breath.  Get present in the moment and ask yourself what is the most important this very second - not what's important tomorrow or even an hour from now.  If you're not sure, make a list of everything vying for your attention and cross off anything that is not important right now."

- Get The Future Out Of Your Head:  A helpful practice McKeown mentions here is taking a moment and listing things which are essential - but not right now-  out of his head and onto a piece of paper.  This helps him to focus by not losing the ideas and knowing that these were now things that he did not need to act on.

- Prioritize:  After prioritizing the "Right Now" list, work on those first, one at a time until they are done.  This allows focus on those things.

McKeown quotes the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, who spends an hour a day drinking tea with other monks:

"Suppose you are drinking a cup of tea.  When you hold the cup, you might like to breathe in, to bring your mind back to your body, and you become fully present.  And when you are truly there, something else is also there -life, represented by the cup of tea.  In that moment you are real, and the cup of tea is real.  You are not lost in the past, in the future, in your projects, in your worries.  You are free from all of your afflictions.  And in that state of being free, you enjoy your tea.  That is the moment of happiness, and of peace."

Pay attention, says McKeown, to the kairos moments of our day.  Write them down, think of what triggered that moment and what you brought from it.  If you can recognize that trigger, you can try to re-create it.

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Application:

Typically at this point I would write "As long-time readers of my blog know...".  But that would yet another rehashing of a comment that we have discussed for a long, long time: I have trouble focusing.  Instead, it is perhaps more useful to consider the wider world around us.

And how that world does everything in its power to prevent focusing.

We live in an age of distraction. Mathew Crawford in his book The World Beyond Your Head refers to the loss of what he calls The Attention Commons, that space that used to exist where people were effectively free from having their attention grabbed by advertising or a constant stream of noise and images.  Nicholas Carr in his book The Shallows quotes research that notes that at the best of times, our minds can hold 3-5 thoughts in working memory - and thanks to the wonder of the InterWeb and the plasticity of our brains, we are literally becoming unable to concentrate on deep issues.  The very fact that we can be in a meeting with people speaking and a computer and two cell phones in front of us, checking each for updates as we move from screen to screen, never really in any one conversation - and that this is acceptable behavior - should give a clue about how the modern world values focus.

With this sort of avalanche against us, the ability to focus in the modern world is almost a superpower.

What is the best way I have been dealing with it?  Very old methods.  Do one thing at a time and, to the best of your ability, remove all other options to multi-focus (e.g., write and check e-mail or even, for me, write and listen to something).  Do things via analog (which almost by default is doing one thing at at time).  And try, more and more, to do less and less via the InterWeb.

Focusing in the modern environment is not impossible.  It is just very, very hard.

The Collapse CCI: The Second Advent Candle

 06 December 20XX+1

My Dear Lucilius:

Today was the lighting of the second Advent candle.

Pompeia Paulina was patiently waiting for me when I came out into the early morning grey that constitutes daylight in Winter here. It is one of the things that I had underestimated when I first relocated here, the true shortness of the days of Winter. Especially in a world without power, one can work before the daylight, but one’s effectiveness can be serious curtailed – who wants to risk an injury just to get a 20 minute head start on something in the dark?

The Advent wreath was there, along with its for candles. The match sparked; one candle, then another candle glowed in the early morning gloom.

The second candle, she said. The Candle of Bethlehem, of Preparation and Peace.

Bethlehem in our day was one of the most well known small towns of history; we had the benefit of 2,000+ years of Christian history behind us. And while even leading up to Christ’s birth it undoubtedly had some fame as the birthplace of David, one of Israel’s great kings, it (like many other birthplaces) had slipped into backwater status; were it to have happened now, likely there would be some small sign commemorating David’s birthplace and perhaps a small museum preserving David’s birth house, manned by volunteers and preserving his parents’ memorabilia (all of the good stuff would undoubtedly be at the museum in Jerusalem), selling post cards and bumper stickers that read “I felt Bethlehome in Bethlehem”.

It was a small place, that history seemed to have moved on from. And yet Scripture promised that something amazing would happen there:

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,

Though you are little among the thousands of Judah,

Yet out of you shall come forth to Me

The One to be Ruler in Israel,

Whose goings forth are from of old,

From everlasting.” - (Micah 5:2)

It was almost 1,000 years between David and Christ and almost 700 years between the prophet Micah and Christ. What did people do?

They waited. They prepared.

They prepared for the coming of Messiah. They waited. They kept the laws as they were given and looked to the future and God – sometimes a God that was not speaking to them at all. They prepared their hearts for the Promised One.

And then, in the fullness of time, Mary and Joseph prepared themselves for a journey they did not intend to make under circumstances not of their choosing to this small, backwater town. Where something which had been prophesied – but was still very unexpected – happened.

We sat in the candlelight as Pompeia Paulina read and then just watched the candles burn for a bit in silence. And then, in silence, blew the candles out and began the day.

Even with the promise, Lucilius, there is still preparation – and waiting – to be done.

Your Obedient Servant, Seneca

2025 Cambodia And Vietnam: Flying High

One of the impediments of getting to Southeast Asia, and likely why it is not on many American's destination list, is simply the amount of time it takes to get there.

From the U.S. West Coast (Los Angeles in this case), it takes 17 hours to fly not to Cambodia or Vietnam, but to Singapore, where one can then take a second flight to Cambodia or Vietnam (for Cambodia, another 4 hours).  Never in my life have I flown so long.

Fortunately for me, The Ravishing Mrs. TB had a plan.  In her case it was the use of credit card points (the credit card point arena is something I neither understand nor wish to understand, but there is a huge subculture for it) to purchase two business class tickets on Singapore Airlines Business Class for something like $200 for fees, at least to Singapore.

They certainly feed you well.

Snack

Dinner Salad

Main course

Dessert

Second Dinner

Second Dinner Course Two

Dessert!  Because nothing screams "Dessert" like a cheese plate.

Laydown seat.  This was a lifesaver as I actually slept.

It certainly made for a relatively pain-free start to the trip.

2025 Cambodia And Vietnam: An Introduction

And so, we arrive at the start of my trip to Cambodia and Vietnam.

(Cambodian Royal Palace - Phnom Penh, Cambodia)

If you had asked me a year prior to selecting this trip, I would have told you that these areas in particular and the region of Southeast Asia in general was never one that I had any strong urge to visit.  I had the basics of geography of course, a class in Communist Government Structure that likely including Vietnam, and at least one graduate class in ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations).  I also had the tail end of an American's knowledge of Vietnam and the Killing Fields of Cambodia, fueled by vague television pictures and the knowledge that at least one of my cousins had died there.

(Angkor Thom - Siam Rep,  Cambodia)

Yet somehow, I ended up in Cambodia and Vietnam.

(Angkor Wat - Siam Rep, Cambodia)

I believe that when The Ravishing Mrs. TB asked me if I was interested, I surprised her as much as myself in saying yes.  In a way, it was the perfect trip:  I really had no historical basis beyond a very hazy one and so no impressions either way about going.

(Hanoi/Ho Chi Minh City - Vietnam)

There places I had heard of, of course:  Phnom Penh, Angkor Wat, Hanoi, The Mekong Delta, Ho Chi Minh City.  I had seen various pictures over the years and perhaps a documentary or two.

Like most things, of course, pictures and documentaries do not do things justice.

(Mekong River - Vietnam)

It was different - probably the most different sort of tour I have done to date.  There is always a veneer of Western Civilization - it is hard to escape that anymore - but behind that veneer was a layer of reality that is sometimes hidden from places that are more used to tourism.  In some ways, these were not the picturesque villages of Europe or the carefully excavated cities of Rome and Greece.  Yes, there were elements of the picturesque there, but it was also the reality of societies in transition between the modern and the traditional.

(Imperial Citadel - Hue, Vietnam)

I know for past series I have usually given a run down of history before I have launched into tour itself.  That said, I do not know that this makes sense this time.  These, at least for me, were very different histories with players and movements and people groups that were unfamiliar to me and I suspect unfamiliar to many.  It perhaps makes the most sense to just holistically roll in the history as we go.

(Ha Long Bay, Vietnam)

Was it what we expected?  I do not know how to answer that questions, because I do not know what I expected.  I do know that it by far was one of the most different places I have visited with a very different history that does not lean much into or rely much on what I have studied and read on most of my life.

("Train Street" - Hanoi, Vietnam)

But scenery was beautiful, the food was good, and the people universally friendly.  If it was not what I expected, it was certainly memorable and exciting in its own right.

(Water Puppet Show - Hanoi, Vietnam)

Welcome, friends, to a slice of Southeast Asia.

 

Letting Go Of Things

I find myself challenged to let go of things.

One of the realities I am forced to face is that - like it or not - I am reaching the point in the program where many of the things I currently own have a limited use or even no use by me at this point.  That perhaps seems a bit hyperbolic, but in point of fact it is also true:  while the end is not nigh, it is definitely in the far horizon. Add to that a double reality of small living space of an unknown duration and two locations besides that where things are stored, and suddenly one has a lot of things that one needs to address.

I am at least grateful for the stopping point of an apartment rather than a house, because that meant that I could not just move all my problems from one place to another without thinking about them.  And with the impending sale of The Ranch and the wholesale removal of items that I might have dithered about, I am not confronted by another huge hoard of items that need assessing.  For better or worse, our current "store" is determined.

That said, it is likely still too much. Which means I get to ask questions like "How likely is it I will ever use this again?" and "Would I miss this if I let it go?"

Yesterday's example was a simple one, sorting T-shirts.

This is the second go I have had at this, as I already did this once during my move last year and donated a pile.  They are all in a single drawer, but my semi-organized system was breaking down, so it was time to reorganize and reduce again.

Again, everything came out.  Again, I looked through it all and asked "What will I never wear again?"

A few are a victim of a "sizing difference" from which I first bought them.  But others?  I have not worn them in years; the likelihood I will wear them in the next twenty or thirty years is almost nil.  And so, into the donate pile they will go.

I need to get better and more active about these kinds of activities.

This always raises an interesting and secondary question in my mind, of course:  as we are society of retail and services and, as I go on, I and a great many people like me require less and less (or like some younger generations, are actively choosing less and less), where does leave an economy that is largely dependent on such things?

It remains secondary, of course.  I should not keep buying that which I neither need nor will use.  And I certainly can benefit from subtracting from that which I own instead of adding to it.

A Year of Humility (XXXII): On Apologizing

 I have been wrong in my life more than I care to admit.

There are, at least that I can think of, at least two different ways to be wrong.

The first way is, for lack of a better term, simply being wrong. This can be due to a number of factors - lack of knowledge, lack of facts, lack of key information - but the outcome is the same:   we do or say the wrong thing.  We give the wrong answer.  We choose the wrong next action.  It can be born of pride, a great belief in our own knowledge or giftedness, or of innocent assumption that we knew something that we really did not know.

The second is choosing wrong.

Choosing wrong is not acting from a lack of knowledge or understanding, it is actively selecting to do wrong.  Sometimes the thing is subtle, like choosing to not let go of an argument or secretly watching someone founder that we hold a grudge against.  Sometimes the thing is not so subtle, when we know the correct action to take and we do not take or instead we actively choose the wrong answer.

Beyond the path back from this point, which most likely involves some level of asking for God's forgiveness and possibly the forgiveness of others, comes that most difficult of acts: apologizing.

Apologizing is easy if it is is in the first category; one can plead lack of knowledge or just a plain mistake.  Most of us have done this many times over the course of our lives - it is the higher level equivalent of "excuse me" after we bump in to someone (it turns out that such a simply apology as "excuse me" in a native language goes a long way towards smoothing uncomfortable situations over).

Apologizing in the second category can be much more difficult.

Why?  Because in the second category, to apologize is to admit that we actively choose wrong.  We chose the harsh words or anger or mocking or the thousand other sins that can infest our lives.  We knew better - than God, than His word, than others that may have tried to counsel us otherwise.  

In perhaps the most memorable example (not original to me), it was we that chose to drive the nails into Christ's hands and feet on the Cross.

What does any of this have to do with humility?  Because, in both cases, it takes humility to apologize.

To apologize - in either case - is to admit that there is something about me, greater or lesser, that is wrong.  That I do not know as much as I think, that I am not as skilled as I thought, that I did not read the relevant document, that I actively chose something that physically or psychically impacted others.

Sometimes - at least for me - apologizing is far more difficult than asking for forgiveness from God.  Apologizing to God is a personal transaction between myself and Him.  Apologizing to others involves the same concept - making ourselves humble enough to admit our mistakes - but doing it to our fellow humans, sometimes fellow humans of which we may vehemently disagree or even actively dislike.

The odd thing?  Apologizing - at least in my own life - always puts me in a better position.  Maybe not directly with the person that I apologized to, but often with others around them.  Why is that?  I wonder if it perhaps the demonstration of the fact that someone - a peer, or perhaps even someone who is in a position or place of greater responsibility - can be wrong and, seeing that they are wrong, have the strength of character to admit it.

The proud can never admit they are or were wrong.  It is only the humble, who see themselves accurately, that are able to do so.

Be At Peace And Call Upon God

 

Or as been said by an unknown poet:

"I asked God for strength that I might achieve.

He was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked God for health that I might do great things.

I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked for riches that I might be happy.

I was given poverty that I might be wise.

I asked for power that I might have the praise of men.

I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life.

I was given life that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for - 

but everything that I had hoped for...

Almost despite myself, I my unspoken prayers were answered.

I am among all men a man most richly blessed."