A Magical Obsession
April 14, 2009
Focus is very important when attempting any task or project, but it’s also important to remember that focus is actually a range, with distraction on one end and obsession on the other.
With the level of complexity in our jobs and in our lives today, the ability to focus on the task at hand and eliminate distractions is a necessary skill. But having too much focus can be as great a problem as having too little.
In my business travel, I have found Chicago to be a very exciting and somewhat magical city. As I incorporate magic regularly into my training programs, I appreciate this city’s very active community of magicians who specialize in close-up card magic.
The central figure in this community until his death was the legendary card man Ed Marlo. Many of the classic card plots, slights, and methods used by magicians today were developed by him.
Every Saturday, these magicians would gather at a local meeting place and engage in what is called “session work.” This is where one person presents a theme, such as cutting to the four aces, and everyone in the group presents similar tricks in an attempt to outdo each other.
One day, Ed Marlo and his wife were joining the group for a birthday celebration at a fancy hotel restaurant. Everyone met and rode in one car to the restaurant. On the ride there, someone had proposed a particularly difficult card problem to which there was no apparent solution. The group discussed several options on the way over, but the discussion was cut short by their arrival at the restaurant.
As they were about to sit down at their table, they noticed that Marlo was missing. They checked for him at the bar, in the restroom, and in other areas of the restaurant, but no one could recall having seen him there.
Finally, someone thought to check the car, and there was Ed Marlo, with a pack of cards spread out in front of him, working on his FIFTH solution to the problem. He was so focused on the task at hand that he hadn’t even noticed that they had arrived at the restaurant!
Sometimes we can become so engrossed in a situation that we focus all of our energies exclusively in that area at the expense of other equally important tasks. Ed Marlo was so caught up with finding a solution that nothing else mattered. And once he discovered one solution, he simply had to find another.
Focus is very important when attempting any task or project, but it’s also important to remember that focus is actually a range, with distraction on one end and obsession on the other.
Keep this thought in your mind as you tackle your next project. Are you usually distracted? Completely obsessed? Or somewhere in-between? Sometimes all it takes is a little magic to refocus your energies to the task at hand.
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You’re right about obsession. There really is a point where focus can become too intense. When that happens, people lose track of the world around them and miss opportunities to learn and to gather information that could actually aid them in making progress.
Thanks for the post and the reminder!