Ready, Aim, Focus!

So many times in life we are presented with problems. Without a doubt your life and the lives of people around you are filled with challenges, and how we address those challenges define our existence. Truthfully it all boils down to just one thing, focus.

When an obstacle presents itself to us, what do we focus upon? Is it the obstacle itself, or do we look for the solution? So many people get mesmerized by the wall in front of them, they forget that their focus should be on the way to either get over it, or around it. The large you allow that wall to become, the more difficult it is to focus on the answer.

Guard your thinking my friends, it's important to realize just how powerful focus is! A laser can cut through a six inch piece of steel with the same amount of energy it takes to operate a seventy five watt light bulb, the difference being how that energy is focused.

Recently a parent relayed to me a problem she was having with her son. Through an act of irresponsibility he'd wrecked his truck four wheeling in the woods. She allowed the wrecked truck to become a giant wall because it loomed in front of her as the problem. The problem wasn't a lack of an inanimate object, where the problem lay is in the irresponsibility of her son. Solve that and the truck was never an issue. Replacing the truck solved a short term issue and left the long term problem unresolved.

This all applies to social causes as well. Abortion, crime, divorce, child abuse, ignorance, poverty, I could go on and on, but we've become adept at applying the short term fix, rather than focusing on the long term solution. It's easy to achieve a sense of satisfaction applying the quick fix, but the gratification of dealing in the long term is really what we should seek. If you think about it the same social problems pop up over and over, because we've not gone to the root of the issue, rather we've applied a band-aid to a sucking chest wound. It's all about the focus! The road to this reoccurring hell has been paved with good intention.

We've been duped into thinking welfare solves poverty. Tax dollars make our children better educated. Higher taxes makes government more efficient. Abortion empowers a woman with choice. Civil dialog stops insane people from acting irrationally. Federally mandated healthcare will make us healthier. That powerful labor unions create job security. This list is exhaustive, and all misguided focus. Long term repairs that address the root of every problem usually involve painful sacrifice, and would we all rather avoid that? It's so much easier to take the ground hog day approach..................

God Bless!
Capt. Bill