Has Focus Become the Destination?

13 July 2025 ~11 minutes

Has focus become sufficient on its own these days? How do focusing processes work? I will try to answer these questions in this article.

There was a destination. There were many different paths to reach that destination. Each of the paths was quite long and difficult. Therefore, it would probably take a long time to reach the destination. No matter which path was chosen, it would be necessary to avoid distractions. Avoiding distractions was necessary to reach the destination rather than to arrive on time.

What were the distractions on the path? So, was looking around a distraction? Of course it was. Looking around on the path would certainly cause a waste of time. However, wasting time was not the real danger. The real danger was the possibility that what we saw could lead us astray from our path. So was the only thing to do just to focus on the path?

Why Should We Focus?

Focus helps us reach a goal, but there are many people who reach their goal without focusing. So why should we focus? Why is it stated so much that focus is necessary to reach a goal?

The journey to reach a goal is very much dependent on the definition of the goal. Whether focus is necessary or not depends on these. Or how much focus is necessary depends on these. It is necessary to make concrete touches to this rather abstract article.

For someone whose goal is to make it to the next day, what they need to do probably doesn’t require much more than just going about their average day, and there may not even be any focus on the goal.

The concept of employee that I will talk about in the following examples does not have to mean an employee affiliated with a company. You can think of it as a company employee or an employee in your own business; whatever makes more sense to you. I have written the people in the examples as men. This was a random choice for the simplicity of the narrative.

Let’s continue with a more realistic example. Let’s consider an employee who aims to deliver a job in 10 days. The jobs given to him are similar. He completes these jobs in an average of 6-8 days. Let’s assume that this new job given to him is of the same standard as the previous ones. He will be able to deliver this job on time by doing average work (taking frequent breaks, occasionally checking his social media accounts while working, checking his phone for every phone notification and responding to messages immediately). It will be very difficult for this person to see a reason for focused work.

Let's consider another employee whose goal is to deliver a job in 10 days. Let's assume that the jobs given to him are variable. He evaluates this new job given to him and decides that it is not possible for him to deliver this job on time by doing average work (taking frequent breaks, occasionally checking his social media accounts while working, checking his phone for every phone notification and responding to messages immediately). It seems that this person has no choice but to work focused. (Assuming that he does not work overtime or does not want to work overtime.)

So, does focused work only help you reach your goal on time?

Now, let's consider a person who has no time limit. He needs to deliver a product design. After the product is released, you need customers to like it. There is no time limit, but it still doesn't seem like it can be done with average work (taking frequent breaks, occasionally checking his social media accounts while working, checking his phone for every phone notification and responding to messages immediately). Of course, it is theoretically possible to create a good product with average work, but it is not possible to come across examples of this in real life. This employee needs to stay away from distractions and focus on his design. Only in this way will it be possible to design a good or almost perfect product.

Focus is necessary to reach the goal in the planned time, and perhaps even just to reach the goal regardless of the time. The journey itself or reaching the goal provides enough satisfaction for many people. However, the result achieved by focusing may be of a higher quality than you originally planned. This result can provide you with greater satisfaction.

Inability to Focus

Inability to focus is considered normal today. Maybe this acceptance was like this in the past and will be like this in the future. Accepting inability to focus is not mean accepting that we are like this and will remain like this. It is accepting that this is the current situation and the average of people. So what are we missing because inability to focus?

The biggest thing we miss is our goal itself. Because inability to focus, in other words, distraction, leads us astray from our path and causes us to wander on a goalless path or even get lost. As a result, we make plans and set off for the same goal many times. We spend our lives in this cycle that ends with us straying from the path. We are at that point where we need a concrete example.

We want to gain/lose weight. We decide to continue this process by eating healthy and doing regular sports. The process starts according to the plan, then some of the sports days are not followed. Foods that are not in accordance with the nutrition program are consumed under the excuse of tiredness. One day you realize that you are in the same situation as you were when you set the goal. This process, which is probably difficult, ends with us returning to where we started. In addition, it seems possible that we will make a similar decision to gain/lose weight after a while.

Focusing doesn’t just mean not thinking about anything else. It can also mean following the plan to the letter, staying away from distractions, and making an effort to maintain order. The meaning of focus can vary depending on the person, the goal, and the time; this is true for most terms. People are the ones who create and define terms. Despite this, people attach too much importance to terms and get stuck on the abstract boundaries of terms.

Another thing we miss because we can't focus is life itself. We become someone who goes through similar cycles. It's hard for me to give a clearer answer to what else we lose. However, it seems certain that we won't gain anything different and satisfying.

Focusing on Focus

There can be many elements that will provide satisfaction: reaching the goal, the qualification of the goal achieved, the journey to reach the goal. These are generally related to the goal and the path to it.

Focusing during the process of reaching a goal can contribute to the process and the quality of the result. However, in a period when the concept of “focusing” is recommended without any context (perhaps it was like this in the past and will be like this in the future), we may not be talking about the same focus. Instead of working focused throughout the process to reach the goal; it may have evolved into a situation such as trying to stay focused throughout the process. In this case, which we can call focusing on focus, the goal now seems to be “Focusing”. We can learn this situation by looking at the results that provide satisfaction.

Was I able to work for 1 hour without looking at my phone? Did I ignore or postpone a question that came to me (it could have been any question) during my work? Could I spend half an hour a day thinking? Was I able to work without listening to music?

The answer to all these questions can be yes. It is probably a good thing if the answer is yes. These can be indicators that people who want to achieve their goals are working focused, which is a good thing. However, when the yes answer you give to these questions becomes a source of satisfaction for you, this situation can start to become a problem. If the satisfaction you get from this alone is enough for you, the problem will grow even bigger. As a result, you may find yourself in a situation where your goal is to focus.

What we miss by focusing on focus could be our goals. We give up on the different experiences and emotions that can be gained with different goals. Instead, by only aiming to focus, we choose a single type of experience and emotion.

So What Do We Miss Because We Focus?

We miss almost everything. And that's okay. Because otherwise, when we don't focus, we gain almost nothing. But there are some things we miss that could be meaningful.

Experiences that can contribute to us and indirectly to our work:
While avoiding distraction, we may be missing out on experiences that we may need. However, we should not conclude that we should give up on focusing. Instead, we can take breaks as we feel necessary (short breaks during the day or long breaks such as vacation). Instead of trying to use these breaks productively to gain experience; ordinary and at the same time peaceful activities such as sleeping, resting, spending time with family/friends or sitting around doing nothing can be done.

Goals that may be more meaningful to us:
We have a goal and we are working focused on achieving it. We plan to continue working at this pace until we achieve it. We may be unable to make some inquiries because we isolate ourselves from external influences (such as people, time, technological developments).

Are our working methods still suitable for our goal?
If we only focus on working, it may not be possible to give a healthy answer to this question. If our working methods are problematic, it may not be possible to progress healthily.

Is our goal appropriate to current conditions?
If we only focus on work, we may not be able to give a healthy answer to this question. If our goal is not appropriate to current conditions, working in this direction will probably be meaningless.

In avoiding distractions, we may be missing out on goals/opportunities that could be more meaningful to us. I would like to continue by repeating part of the narrative at the beginning of the article:

What were the distractions on the path? So, was looking around a distraction? Of course it was. Looking around on the path would certainly cause a waste of time. However, wasting time was not the real danger. The real danger was the possibility that what we saw could lead us astray from our path. But what we saw might be a better path to get to our destination. Perhaps even a more meaningful destination.

Thank you for taking the time to read.