Fixing Your Focus - 014 Skipping Before Finishing

Water-of-Fire: Skipping in a “Dragged” Manner

With siyata d’shmaya we are continuing to discuss the power of focus\concentration, and now we shall discuss focus-related issues that stem from water-of-fire.

Fire, as mentioned previously, is the ability to skip. Water is the nature to become dragged. Therefore, water-of-fire is when a person is dragged from one point to a completely other point, in a manner of skipping.

Unlike earth-of-fire, where the skipping is done in a step-by-step manner, water-of-fire is when a person is “dragged” from one point to another, in no particular order, where he skips from one point to another completely unrelated point. This happens because he has no permanence. He isn’t focused on where he is, and therefore he can become dragged to a different point, skipping to something completely unrelated to whatever he was in middle of until now.

That is the outline of how water-of-fire hampers focus.

Four Different Ways of Transitioning From One Point To Another

Human nature, which Hashem has designed every person with, is that a person can get from one point to another. This follows the very design of Creation, where Hashem created the first day, then the second day, then the third day, etc. Every person goes through stages of transitioning from one point to another. There are four different ways of how a person can get from one point to another:

1)     He may skip from one point to another point (fire).

2)     He may go there in an orderly manner, following a certain order of steps (earth).

3)     He may be dragged there (water).

4)     He may move to there by directing himself how to get there, because he has a path of how to get there (wind).

Transitioning from One Point to another is a Deterrent to Focus

When one transitions from one point to another, he cannot be focused on his current point. Therefore, transitioning from one point to another causes a person to become unfocused.

Absolute Focus is only possible when there is a state of Oneness (The Future)

If there was only thing in Creation to be focused on, a person would always be focused, because there would be nothing to distract him from that one point. This will be the state of the future, when there will only be one thing alone, when “Hashem will be One, and His name will be One.”[1] Hashem’s very oneness is the root of His Name which is One, and this oneness extends into all of the dimensions, from the most sublime level all the way until the very lowest point – which is the element of earth. Thus Hashem’s oneness is present even in the lowliest element, earth.

The future will be one point alone, and therefore it will be a situation of total, absolute focus, because there will nothing to distract a person from his focus. But in the current period of Creation we are in, there are myriads of points, an endless amount of creations, and therefore in the current state of Creation, a person passes from one point to another, because there is always a different force which can distract him and deter his focus. This is the deep reason behind why a person loses his focus whenever he transitions from one point to another.

Although it is still possible for a person to attain focus even in the current state of Creation, one’s power of focus can never be on an absolute and complete level. This is simply because the complete level of focus will only be attainable in the future.

Our Power To Focus Is Only Within This World of Separation

In addition to the above factor, our world is called a “world of disparity” (alma d’piruda), where each point in Creation is separate from each other. Whenever we make a transition from one point to another, we are not unifying the two points, and instead, we are always separating from the previous point so that we can get to the next point. This is another reason why a person today can never reach a total level of focus. Any focus that we can have is only within this world of separation, so it is never a complete level of focus.

Therefore, our entire inner work when it comes developing our power of focus can only be within this world of separation: learning how to make a proper transition from one point to another. All we can do in our current state is to separate from one point so that we can get to another, and this is because our very perspective on this world comes from separation. So our task, when learning how to focus, is all about learning how we can focus within this world - a dimension of separation.

How Any of the Four Elements of Transitioning Can Affect Focus

As mentioned, it is possible for a person to transition from one point to another using any of the four elements – earth, water, wind and fire.

Through the elements of fire\skipping and water\dragging, it is clear that a person stops focusing on his current point when he transitions to the next point.

Through wind\direction, a person will be very focused only if he is clear about where he needs to get to, but if he isn’t clear, he will become distracted by a different point and he will lose focus. He may be clear about his goal, but the path to get there may not be clear. Even within the Torah, there are many different valid paths to take, all with the same goal, and one may not be clear about the path he is taking. This lack of clarity can cause a person to become scattered between different points along the way.

Through earth, where a person is trying to get to another in a step-by-step manner, although he is being very focused, he may not know what to do. For example, when a person is trying to construct a building, and he needs to order the bricks and material, he may order too much, or too little. Although he has a step-by-step plan of how he wants to construct his building, he may not know what each step will entail. He may realize that he has made some mistakes, and then other things come up along the way, and this hampers his focus. So even though he is the type to follow an orderly, step-by-step approach, he will not always be able to decide what the next step should be.

It is certainly possible, though, that a person will know how to construct a building, and what all of the steps will be, from beginning until end. But when it comes to life itself, the element of earth cannot help a person plan out what his life will look like, and what each step should be. It is impossible for a person to plan out all the steps of his life, and with all their details. There is no such thing. Perhaps Moshe Rabbeinu or Mashiach could do this, but no one else can.

Since we cannot use the element of earth to plan out all of the steps of our life, we are either using the elements of water, wind or fire in order to make it through our lives. Since the power of focus is an earth-based power, and we are not able to use earth to plan out our lives (as explained above), we are not able to attain complete focus on this world.

How, then, can we repair our power of focus?

Step 1 – Finish The Current Task

Whenever we make a transition from one thing to another, there are several steps involved.

The first step involved is that when a person wants to get to the next step, he will want to quickly finish what he’s involved with now, so that he can proceed to the next step already. This is the root of “skipping” which was mentioned earlier. When a person wants to proceed but he feels like he isn’t finished yet, he might “skip” to the next point. He moves to the next point, using his element of wind, and the result is that he skips, which is the element of fire. There is first movement (wind) and later skipping (fire). When a person wants to finish what he’s involved with because he wants to proceed already, the result is that he will skip.

What he really needs to do is to make sure he has finished the previous point. Many people have a problem of wanting to proceed to the next point before finishing the previous step. They find it unpleasant to remain in the previous step when they want to get to the next step already, so they skip the current step in order to proceed to the next step. Often a worker will want to get started on the next part of his job before finishing the first part of his job.

Instead, a person needs to finish what he has first started, before moving on to the next step.

Step 2 – Becoming Aware of the Skipping

If a person feels too impatient and he wants to get started on the next step already, then he may skip to his next step, but only if he is consciously aware that he is skipping and running away from his task. In this way, at least he creates awareness.

Step 3 – Do One More Thing Before Starting The Next Task

After that, one should try taking take of one more step in his current task, before moving on to his next task. This delay prevents you from being too impulsive when you skip to the next task.

In summary, we have so far said three steps to take, whenever you want to move on to another task: 1) Try to finish what you start before moving on to your next task. 2) Become aware that you want to skip to another task. 3) Try finishing one more part of your current task, before moving on to the next task.

Allow Space Between Each Task

Let us add on an additional point: When you get a task done, you shouldn’t immediately begin your next task.

The Sages state that there is a concept of “giving a space between each parshah”. When a person finishes a task and immediately starts another, he feels as if he is quickly skipped from one thing to another. Instead, the idea way to go about all activities throughout the day is to allow some time to elapse before moving on to the next task. The gain of this is that he has created an interruption between his previous task and his next task.

This is not only an idea that should be used with regards to maintaining our focus, but it is the recommended way to act in general. One should always allow a space between each task he does. If a repairman or worker gets a job done, and he immediately runs to go take care of his next job, this is the exact antithesis of the very idea here. Instead, he should take a break. Any break will suffice, as long as it’s a break – he can sit in a chair and do nothing, or drink a cup of coffee. But he must take some kind of break, before starting his next job.

In addition, if a person tells someone that he will come to him to help with something or to do some kind of repairs for him, he should tell the person that he might be a few minutes late than the time he is expected at. In this way, he allows himself to have a break from his previous activity and he doesn’t feel so rushed to get to his next task. Here again the point is to create a delay, before continuing on to the next task.

Menuchah (Serenity) Between Tasks – Through Settling The Mind Before Continuing To Act

At first, this will feel like wasting time. But any sensible person who understands the depth of this knows that this increases the quality of his life, because it enables a person to remain calm throughout the day and maintain his yishuv hadaas (lit. “settling of the mind”, or composure).

Reb Yisrael Salanter was asked that if a person only has a short amount of time a day to learn, should he learn Gemara, halachah or mussar? Reb Yisrael Salanter famously replied that one should learn mussar, because when he learns mussar, he will gain yishuv hadaas, and when one has yishuv hadaas, he will be calm and then he’ll see that he has more time to learn.

This way of living, of allowing space between activities, is the antidote to the habit of skipping from one thing to another. When one pauses before starting his next task, he is avoiding the problematic behavior of skipping, and he maintains his yishuv hadaas.

Skipping comes from the soul’s power of movement. It is not only a quick, rapid kind of movement, but a movement that lacks orderliness to it. By getting used to acting in an orderly manner – by refraining from skipping from one task to another, by making sure to complete a task before getting started on another one – a person improves his power of focus.

In this way, one’s movements are calm, and this activates the power of menuchah, serenity. When one’s movements are calm and he isn’t rushing between activities, he can become greatly focused. Menuchah is not only for Shabbos, and it is not only needed for proper sleep. It is needed on a regular basis, as part of our life. One should strive to become an ish menuchah (a man of serenity), as Shlomo HaMelech was called.

Of course, we cannot attain the complete level of menuchah as we live on This World. The absolute level of menuchah will only be possible in the future. We live in a world of movement, which doesn’t allow for complete menuchah. But even within this world of movement we live in, we can attain some degree of serenity within our movements – when we go about our movements calmly and by not skipping between various tasks. Menuchah must become a normal part of our life. We need to calm ourselves between taking care of different tasks, and in this way, we lessen the problem of “skipping” and then we become more focused.

We have described here a certain way of living, in which a person accustoms himself to performance then menuchah\serenity, and then returning to performance, repeating the cycle. Life must become an ongoing cycle of action, then menuchah\serenity, then action, etc. When one makes sure to calm himself before moving on to his next task, he avoids the detrimental habit of skipping from one point to another.

There is external movement, and there is inner movement. When it comes to physical movement, which is external, it is clear that a person cannot be serene if he is moving fast. The problem we have discussed until now is when one is in the midst of some physical activity and he skips to doing another activity, without having any calm break in between. But there is also inner movement, of the soul. Even if a person’s external surroundings are calm and he has stopped moving, he may be not be calm internally. If a person doesn’t feel calm inside and he starts taking care of another task, this is also a kind of “skipping” to another task, which is detrimental to one’s serenity and focus.

So how can a person know when he can move on to taking care of another task? He should wait enough time until he feels sufficiently calm inside. When he feels that he has become inwardly calm, he has attained enough serenity to move on properly to his next task. This may be difficult for a person to determine, and in fact, most people cannot make this change in their way of living. But if you want to know the ideal way to act, this is the way. This particular point is the goal of all that we have said here, and it is this point which we want to get to.

This is like transitioning from one weekday to the next, through the serene day of Shabbos that is in between.  One needs to first complete a task (which we can refer to as a “weekday”), then rest from the activity (“Shabbos”), and then start his second task. And on an inward level as well, one needs to first go through movements of the soul (which we can refer to as “weekday”) then access the serenity in his soul (“Shabbos”) and then return to the soul’s movements (“weekday”).