If you want to have unwavering focus but have struggled to achieve it, this Buddhist story has an answer.
Once a king gave one of his subjects a challenge. He said, “You have to walk around the palace carrying a bucket full of hot oil on your head, with one condition — you should not spill even one drop.”
The guy was overwhelmed but he started practicing walking — first with an empty bucket on his head, then filled with water, and so on.
Finally, when the day came, he was ready. And he walked around the palace with the bucket full of hot oil and spilled not a drop.
Beaming with pride, he went to the king. And the king asked him: “When you were walking, what were the people around you doing?”
The subject replied, “My lord, I have no idea — I did not notice anything.”
This is how focus works. When you have a compelling goal, your mind narrows your attention so much that it excludes everything else.
While there are many ways to train your mind for better focus, an extremely compelling goal automatically focuses your mind.
That is why, in our Deep Work and Flow bootcamp, we ask people to identify their goals for each focus sprint.
If you want to start inculcating focus in your daily life, every morning, pick a short-term goal or target. If it is even 1/10th as compelling as carrying a bucket of hot oil, your focus will be unwavering.
– Rajan