Today Not everything deserves your focus today, but everything will demand it anyway. Protect it.

“The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.” 

Marcus Aurelius

We live in an age of distraction.

We also live in an age that reputes focus as the new IQ.

Is that just a coincidence?

Not only is focus essential, focus creates our realities. Marcus Aurelius, one of the greatest Roman emperors and stoic philosophers, was right in saying that our thoughts shape us. Our focus shapes us too, for better or for worse.

Not only a lack of focus.

But misplaced focus.

Today you will be bombarded with thousands and thousands of unspoken requests for your focus. Apps that ping, ads that flash, phone calls, noises, sights, random thoughts, smells, random desires, tiny vexations, and innumerable other things.

We have never been in a time where distraction has been so easy!

We have also never been in a time where something as small and irrelevant as a YouTube video can derail our purposeful action for the day.

And here’s the thing:

• Not everything that asks for your attention today deserves it.
• Not everything you feel an urge to put your focus on really needs it today.
• The fact is, 99% of it doesn’t — and most people focus on that 99%.

As Marcus Aurelius said, the value our focus is relative:

“The value of attentiveness varies in proportion to its object. You’re better off not giving the small things more time than they deserve.”

Focus is gold, but the wrong object of focus can tarnish it.

We’re all better off giving those small, nagging things that don’t really matter no more time than they deserve. Even those little things that need to be done only deserve just as much time as they need to be done, and no more!

So we can focus on high-value things . . .

Our dreams.

Our best work.

Our families and friends.

Our health.

Our intellectual and spiritual growth.

Our fortunes.

Our legacies.

Our unique expressions of happiness, love, passion, and creativity.

Our irrevocable, miraculous lives.

Today you will be tempted into distractions, but you will also be tempted by low-value focus vampires. As Anthony Moore wrote, your ability to ignore the irrelevant is just as important as your ability to focus on priorities. Be vigilant, and only give small things what they deserve — which isn’t much.

Your thoughts form your reality.

Your focus determines your direction.

What you focus on determines the value of that focus — and in the end, the cumulative impact of your life.

Focus today, but also focus wisely.

Not everything that demands your focus deserves it.