There Is A Science To Focus

I have been blessed with only needing reading glasses since about 50 or so, but I can tell other full-time glasses may be a requirement soon…at least according to my doctor – very little daily activity is restricted due to a focus problem, but I think it will show up sooner rather than later.

Yet, my wife was recently blessed with a new diagnosis where all she needs now are reading glasses. Her eyes have actually improved from the prescription she’s needed for many years.

Each eye sees differently than the other, respective of the side of your face it may be on. For example, my right eye does not see as clearly as my left eye, so prescription reading glasses are in order because each eye has a different focal need. I get by with cheap replacement reading glasses from those big box stores if I have glass problems, but to keep my eyes in shape I must have a proper prescription so the eyes stay healthy and working correctly.

Just like you use different tools for focusing on different objects (think microscope versus telescope), each eye has subtle differences that require unique lenses for each eye. Since each eye is unique to the side of life you focus on, each eye is uniquely measured to fit specific focal lenses to the need of each side. Then both measurements work to bring everything into center focus!

Like I said. There is a science to this. I’ve watched my eye doctor do manual calculations (pen and paper) on adjusting the prescription for the distance of focus needed.

In fact, you may even have one eye that sees straighter than the other one!

I started shooting a compound bow (yes, I still own it!) back in the mid-’70s. At an archery shop in Pasadena, TX, I tried out many bows and struggled with hitting the target. I wondered if I would ever conquer the bow!

Finally, the owner finally asked me to do a simple “eye dominance” test. Arrange your hands directly in front of your face like this picture and focus on an object about 6 feet away, maybe a doorknob, with both eyes open. Then, alternately close one eye and then the other. If one eye sees the object more centered than the other one, then that is your dominant eye. If each eye sees the object centered then you have equal dominance between the two eyes.

So. He lined me up with a left-handed bow, and after practicing getting set from a different angle, pulling the bow to an anchor position with different arms and strengths, I finally took a chance letting loose an arrow in that inside shooting range!

Winner! Winner! Bulls Eye the very first shot!

My Left Eye was Dominant! By a huge margin! In fact, it made me wonder about everything I use my right eye for, including focusing down the barrel of a gun, or through a telescope at the stars! Even fine tuning some driving techniques!

If you have a dominant eye, and depending on how far off the other eye is, you have some choices to make. Either force everything you do to focus on using the dominant eye, or cater to the less dominant eye and make physical adjustments so that it centers on the object ahead. That may mean learning to aim differently, or standing differently, or cocking your head further one way in order for the eye to line up with the object.

The other thing about focus is the distance away from the object you are attempting to see. In my world, I have one pair of reading glasses for up-close. Another pair for my computer monitor about 38 inches away. This often leaves me needing something in between the two. The doc tried to get me to wear trifocals, but I kept reeling in a sea-sickness motion trying to find the sweet spot.

It just ain’t gonna happen!

Think about it with me. This concept comes into play in many areas of our lives. We have a dominant focus on certain aspects of life as we know it and seldom learn how to bring other portions of living into focus with precision or strength.

The Apostle Paul shares this concept from a different perspective – using our thoughts as an object lesson.

“…take every thought captive to obey Christ…” (2 Corinthians 10:5 ESV)

Like vision, our thoughts are often scattered to every nook and cranny of our mind, but we do have the ability to reign in those thoughts into focused attention! For him, that was to “obey Christ.” Everything was brought into focus under the vision of Christ.

I like to think he dismissed a lot of things that were not part of his vision!

Have you heard the old saying, “Can’t see the forest for the trees.” Your focus is on the nitpicky view of all those individual trees and you cannot see the whole group identified as a forest! Understand? Everything you look for is found in the last place you looked…even if you looked there previously. Your focus was not upon the lost item, rather more devoted to the flash of fear that something was lost!

I am continually tormented by having “too much on my plate“. Some have staff and workers to pass things off to, but in my world, it is nearly always ME and ME alone to get things done. This leaves me feeling like there are too many loose and tattered ends to projects.

Finally, the writer of Hebrews tells us about controlling our race for this life.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV

Get it? Quit focusing on the things that should not matter! Keep the race (goal) in front of you and focus on that!

I want to be more geared on bringing everything into focus, controlling the drift away from my goal, and then zoom in on the main thing – reaching my goals!

How about you? Care to share?