Burning holes with sunlight
Published: Thu, 12/10/15
Winter here in the UK and the shortest day is less than two weeks away.
Then each day gets a little longer and the sun is a little higher and shows itself a little longer each day until mid-summer. At least it did last year and I think the situation can be relied upon to repeat itself this year too.
Around about February the warmth from the sun should get noticeably greater and it will be nice to just stand in the sunshine and feel the warmth on the skin. But what if you bring a magnifying glass into the equation and concentrate the sunlight onto the skin? It won’t be pleasant for very long, in fact you will burn a hole in yourself pretty quickly if you were stupid enough to keep the glass in place.
Why? Same sun, same skin, so why is normal sunshine so pleasant in normal circumstances yet a magnifying lens can easily start a fire (actually one of the best ways of starting a fire without matches or lighter). The answer of course is focus, the concentration of the light energy meeting the area of the lens and then bringing all that power to a tiny point where the heat is concentrated.
Why does a needle have a sharp point? Why can a lightly built woman walk across a wooden floor in stiletto heels and leave marks in the surface? Indeed what makes the stiletto itself a deadly weapon? In each case the concentration of weight or force to a very specific point.
If the sun had sufficient heat to cause fires just by shining on the earth’s surface life would be impossible here (probably the reason that the planet Mercury is uninhabited as far as we know). Yet the same sunlight which permits life can still be concentrated to the point where combustion is inevitable. We all have limited time, energy and resources. All human beings are relatively similar and yet the amount that people achieve in their lives varies massively from one person to another. What is the difference? We all have 60 seconds in each minute, 24 hours in a day and 70 years is just over 25,000 days. All brains are roughly the same size and most of us have access to the same essential resources. (education, communications, books etc.) So what is the difference between success and failure, achievement and well, nothing much? The answer is focus, taking energy, opportunity and resources and concentrating the effort into a
single and definite purpose.
How? By concentrating in the various senses of the word. What you are reading now is an example of concentration. I set my timer for 20 minutes and wrote as much as I could during that time. I concentrated my efforts into 20 minutes before I go to work. And so the 600 words got written. In martial arts training there is always someone bigger and stronger than you. You can’t train to become bigger and there is a limit on how strong you can become. But you can focus your available strength and power for maximum effect, and, no, it isn’t done by being ‘harder and faster’. I can teach you how to concentrate your power but few people seem to be able to focus on actually learning and practising. Back to the importance of focus. Fulfilling human potential isn’t down to more knowledge, resources or effort. Just a matter of properly focusing a fraction of what is already right there.
Try it for yourself. Take something you don’t really thing you want or can do. Get organised to do it as best you can. Then set a timer for no more than 20 minutes, perhaps less and focus on that task for just that time. You might be surprised at yourself.
regards
Graham