Struggling With Focus?

Returning to the rhythm

Oct 09, 2024

Welcome to The Stoa Letter, the newsletter on Stoic theory and practice.

🏛️ Theory

One of the key Stoic skills is the ability to keep your attention on what matters.

Media, the people that surround us, and the events of life are always trying to distract us down paths of life that may be easier and more pleasurable. But these trials do not always lead to happiness.

I’ve known people who truly struggle with focus. Their lives often end up completely derailed. Too often, when they find concentration it’s on the wrong thing: media, conflict, or substances.

Most of us don’t face that kind of challenge – though the possibility is always there. For everyone, some periods of life challenge our ability to hold focus.

All of us experience distractions frustratingly eating into our day. Whether they are introduced by us or the outside world doesn’t matter. Even Marcus Aurelius had to remind himself:

Discard your misperceptions.

Stop being jerked like a puppet.

Limit yourself to the present.

Meditations 7.29

The key skill here is to keep your attention on what matters. Keep your purpose clear in your mind. And you’ll be impervious to harmful distractions. But there’s an equally important skill here.

Because we’re imperfect, we make mistakes. We must regain our focus when this happens. This is a skill all by itself.

The ability to rediscover the rhythm when you’ve lost the sense of it is essential.

Instead of diving into distraction or floundering in self-criticism, simply return your attention to the matter at hand whenever you’ve lost it.

Avoid useless self-judgment. Only shame yourself when doing so is useful. Keep the goal in mind: building attention and discipline.

As Marcus Aurelius said:

When jarred, unavoidably, by circumstances, revert at once to yourself, and don’t lose the rhythm more than you can help. You’ll have a better grasp of the harmony if you keep on going back to it.

Meditations 6.11