Focus

Focus is the capacity to select something as relevant, stay with it and redirect attention when necessary.

Good focus is not the same as gripping.

Someone can concentrate intensely while having very little freedom over their attention. Healthy focus includes the ability to stop, widen perspective and notice when the object of attention is no longer the thing that matters.

In practical terms, focus helps us read carefully, listen fully, complete difficult work and remain with a question long enough for something more interesting than the first answer to appear.

In a world designed to compete for attention, the ability to decide what receives yours is increasingly an expression of agency.