I miss a lot by not having cable.
I know that sentence is odd, though I’m not quite sure which part of that would strike you the most odd — the not having cable or that fact that I miss a lot. While everyone enjoys seeing things like Here Comes Honey Booboo, there are some shows that are actually quite interesting.
In the last week of 2012, during my annual visit home, my bestie’s boyfriend introduced me to the show Fight Science on the NatGeo Channel (the cool name of the National Geographic Channel). This show measures the science of different types of fighters — street, Navy Seals, martial arts — studying how well they do they things they do. Essentially the measuring and study of efficiency.
One experiment took an Air Force fighter pilot, who was trained to drop bombs, and placed him under extreme circumstances to test his focus. They placed him in a fight simulator and spun him around for nine minutes. While spinning (a full 360 degree spin each second) they asked him a series of questions–how many sides in an octagon, etc.
He was able to do this well as the blood transfered from his head to the bottom half of his body. Well, but not easy. There was sweat on his borrow and the questions, which are simple for the average person sitting upright, were harder to answer upside down. Each question, however, was answered correctly. How did he do it?
He said he focused on his task and didn’t look around. He didn’t look at his periphery. He maintained his focus on the task at hand and let everything else fade into the noise.
I thought of this example when the founders of this great literary magazine asked me to write a blogpost. A New Year. A new day to post on this blog. What would I say? What would I write?
I needed focus and so I thought of the pilot.
As writers we have become geniuses at the excuses to avoid writing — time, stress, family. I know those excuses well; I’ve used them all. They are the reasons I use when feeling guilty about the absence of creative work. But I know these are just excuses, my building blocks to no where. While I may have done some of my to-do list, or may have just vegged in front of the set in the name of stress alleviation, my writing, and in reality me, suffered for it.
My most used excuse is that I can’t write because I don’t have time. There are a long list of things to do that need to get done. Somehow, I believe these things are so important writing down on a list is essential for my world to continue. I have to do laundry and buy groceries, wash dishes, vacuum carpets, feed my cat. Then there’s the to-do list from work which increases, it seems like, with every breath. Who has time to write? I barely have time to sleep.
But what is my focus? What is important to me? This is something I have to ask myself as a writer. If writing is important to me, which it is, then everything else is in the periphery.
The transition from MFA back to real life has been interesting. When I think back to that time in grad school, and more recently NaNoWriMo, focus was abundant. To finish the MFA or the novel in a month, I made writing a priority. I focused on writing and gave myself to it. Yes, the dishes didn’t get done and the laundry went undone longer than I would have liked, but what was the most important thing on my list, my writing, was attended to.
There’s this interesting article on Yahoo (http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/want-success-fix-mornings-124459953.html), which is considered one of the best articles of 2012, about the effectiveness of successful people. They don’t underestimate the importance of the morning time. Before work and the day starts, they meditate and work on themselves. This is a quiet time, before the storm of the day begins. This is when focus happens for them. Focus was scheduled and important enough to wake up an extra hour early in the morning.
This article appealed to me because with a new year, there needs to be a re-dedication of focus. In fact, that should be the new buzz word of 2013 for anyone who dares yield a pen. Focus. What’s the goal? Then go for it like a dog with a bone or an Air Force pilot spinning rapidly as he answers how many sides are in an octagon. (The answer is 8, by the way.)
So, with a little help from the U.S. Air Force, I give you the mantra of 2013: Aim High and Focus.
Who says you can’t learn from cable television?
Icess Fernandez
Blogger, Writingtoinsanity.com
Blogger, Writingtoinsanity.com
