Animals, in order to survive, have developed their ability to expand their attention. For animals, staying too long in one space spells death if they are prey and a lost meal if they are predator. Animals survival depends on their ability to constantly spread their attention.
I see this everyday that my gaze meets our grandpup, Tank. He was abused as a pup, so he more resembles a wild dog than a typical safe, secure, domesticated one. His eyes constantly shift from one place to another as his experience has taught him to be vigilant in spreading his attention. His eyes dart from target to target. In the wild, his survival depends on it.
Humans, in order to survive, have developed the ability to focus their attention. We could not outrun or outmuscle our early predators and we still can’t. We could, however, out-think them. We could gaze out across the open meadow and deepen our focus. We could become a domain specific expert on a patch of land and almost intuitively notice the most subtle of changes. We could also study, learn, and apply what made our predators so effective as hunters and slowly, over time and through lots of experiments and adversity, we could fashion tools, weapons, and early warning systems that exceeded the tencil strength of any talon. Humans have historically survived because of deep focus that leads to mastery. Mastery that tames the wild and gives us the gift of time…
Here’s the modern problem, however, that I see every day. In the world of work where most humans are fighting for survival, their attention is like Tanks with a bit of twist. Modern mans attention is darting AND distracted. People are running from one meeting to another, always late, and with a good excuse for being so. People act as if we’ve evolved in reverse and somehow lost the gift of time and instead become slaves to it. Instead of slowing down and studying, learning, and applying, modern man chooses to just get busier. One more meeting oughta do it.
Let me practice being CCD, my friend. Your brain is your greatest asset. Focus it. Build domain specific knowledge in your craft. Master it.
This takes practice, practice, and more practice. This takes at least 10,000 hours of practice led by someone that knows what they’re doing, what you’re doing, what you’re capable of doing, and someone who knows exactly what specific and concrete action will cause you to build capacity. In other words, a world class builder beside you. Good luck building mastery on your own.
And, remember, you are not practicing when you’re darting to and fro and enslaved by your schedule. You are not practicing when you simply show up at practice either. You are not practicing until you are deeply focused with your attention. You are not in too many meetings. You are not stuck in a situation beyond your control. You are a master in the making. Again, the modern problem pops it’s ugly head. We are becoming a bunch of masters of distraction. Masters of twitter,facebook,instagram, and meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting. Masters of distraction.
Your mind wants you to focus it, master it, and turn it toward your masterpiece. You are made for mastery. Your survival might just depend on it…
BUILT TO LEAD 
Toto we laughed when we talked about this today because this blog was echoed a few hundred years before by one of your favorite dead french guys, Blaise Pascal, who in his compilation “Pensees” (lit. “Thoughts”) wrote that the enemy of this kind of mastery is what he called DIVERSION — a great word to describe darting & distraction.
And we so love diversion b/c it gives us the illusion that we are productive, when what it’s REALLY doing is keeping us from thinking about the deeper matters of life. In Deep Change, Quinn makes the same argument… “busyness” is the opium of most people who have settled for “peace and pay” and what he calls “slow death.” You can fool yourself into thinking you’re surviving that way and even into believing you have some artificial sense of control, but you may as well be drugged up and hooked up to an iron heart & lung machine and call that surviving.
The alternative is deep change. According to the author Geoffrey Colvin of Talent is Over-rated, there are essentially two types of people. The first and largest group are those who are constantly seeking affirmation that what they are doing is ‘ok’. The second and minority (what Toto calls “the damn few”) are those who are constantly seeking feedback and choosing deliberate practice that will make them BETTER. Deliberate practice is actively DESIGNED to improve specific aspects of performance — with a teacher’s/builder’s help. It can be repeated a lot. Feedback on results is continuously available. It’s highly demanding MENTALLY (whether or not the activity is purely intellectual). And it isn’t MUCH fun.
Will you try to “survive” with the chronic pain of slow death or choose ACUTE pain and THRIVE with the deliberate practice that leads to deep change? Which are you living with now? Why, WHy, WHY?
At BUILT TO LEAD, we believe pain is inevitable, but like misery, MASTERY is a choice.