As an avid photographer growing up with a darkroom (before digital photography) I spent a lot of time on focus. Not in terms of my life but rather in terms of the photographs and memories I was trying to develop and “keep”. In the darkroom I would work at cropping a picture so that there was less clutter and more of the subject I really was interested in seeing.
It’s fascinating to compare this to what you do with a microscope. When you are looking at a slide, you first bring it into focus. And then, if you don’t see enough of what your looking for, you change the magnification to something greater so that you see a smaller area of the slide but more of the subject you’re interested in.
Cutting out articles or coupons help us remove the clutter of unwanted things around them. Cleaning out our closet gives us a better view of the clothes we like to wear. Taking a long, hot bath sometimes helps us separate from the noise in our daily lives.
Narrowing our focus is used when it comes to helping us become more effective with the “stuff” around us. It helps us, many times, in trying to accomplish “something”.
But you never hear any conversation about focus with respect to a mirror. A reflection of ourselves complete with our insecurities and our false perceptions. We see our aging selves in a mirror but fail to see the clutter in our thoughts and lives.
Quick to blame others or our circumstance, makes me wonder, why can’t we use this same ability to narrow our focus to remove the clutter within us? To see clearer our inner selves and begin to understand where we need to work to change.
To measure our dreams against our resources and abilities to see what needs our attention to realize them.
To cultivate and express our passions so that they become the wind behind our sails.
To assess our progress to understand both where we have been and where we have yet to go.
Can you narrow your focus when looking in a mirror?