FOCUS POCUS

This morning, like most mornings, I woke with the sun and made my way to the kitchen to brew a cup of green tea. While waiting for the water to boil, I threw out handfuls of peanuts for the blue jays, as I often do. Sometimes I take care to put them in the hanging feeder, but most mornings - to start the day I just scatter them on the ground, knowing that the squirrels have an equal chance at that breakfast offering. As I sipped my morning tea I sat meditatively gazing out watching the morning rush of jays and squirrels. I am always amazed at how they instantly arrive when I toss out the peanuts and often giggle as I imagine some cartoonish version of them lurking around the corner anxiously awaiting my offering. Too often now I hear the jays screeching if the peanuts don't show up in a timely manner in the morning.

This morning some crows decided to join us for breakfast. I often hear them and see them around the neighborhood but rarely do they actually spend time in my yard. It started with one who landed in the yard and became focused on a particular squirrel. The crow followed this squirrel around the yard for several minutes then flew to a low hanging branch above the squirrel. This crazy behavior, even for a crow, captured my attention as I curiously watched the dance. Then the squirrel buried a peanut and headed back towards the house to gather more. The crow swooped down and dug up the peanut the squirrel had just buried. Then one by one other crows landed in the yard - five in all - and started pecking at grassy spots looking for their own buried treasure. The particular behavior didn't surprise me, crows and ravens are extremely intelligent birds and why 'hunt' for your own food when you can just snatch it from an unwitting squirrels stash. I laughed because just a couple feet from where they were searching for their buried treasures lay a handful of peanuts available for the taking, no hunting or digging necessary.

Observing this behavior got me thinking about how we as humans also become so focused on a goal that it often triggers our own 'automatic response system' in how we approach the tasks at hand. Being focused is actually a good thing because if you were paying attention to every little thing happening around you - you would not be able to function and could quite literally drive yourself crazy.

So what is wrong with being focused? For goal oriented tasks focus is great. At the same time you need to understand something very important, when we become focused it can also be like we are wearing blinders. For example, many of us believe when we are looking out into the world we are seeing all of it, the truth - the whole truth, when in fact what we are seeing is a very small part of reality. It is so important to understand that this is only a good thing as long as we realize that is what we are doing.

If we are not aware of the fact that we are only aware of a small part of reality we are likely to pay a high price in terms of our potential, not only individually but relationally and organizationally as well. Something I will cover in more depth in my next blog post.