Focus: The Freight Train of the Mind

Focus is a freight train: slow to get going and slow to stop.

The more we focus on one thing, the easier it becomes to focus on it again—and the harder it is to look away. Just like any skill or habit, focus is most energy-consuming when you first engage it. This means that a new thought or skill will tire you out quickly.

However, if you keep coming back to it, it becomes easier and easier to spend longer periods focused. At a certain point, the momentum flips: it actually takes work not to focus on it. Pulling your awareness away becomes the new challenge.

The Inertia of the "New" vs. the "Old"

Think of the hours spent obsessing over a fun project or a past relationship. The effort required changes depending on how long that "train" has been on the tracks.

Starting a novel task is physically demanding because the brain requires high metabolic energy to forge new neural pathways, making focus difficult to initiate. Conversely, breaking away from established patterns—the "old"—is difficult to interrupt, as it requires significant emotional energy to overcome existing momentum. Ultimately, whether you are trying to build focus or shift it, the biological cost remains high.

Reducing the Cost

There is a way to reduce this Cost. This is where calming our nervous systems becomes a powerful tool. By lowering the baseline intensity of the body, we reduce the friction required to grow the "new" and the sheer force required to leave the "old." It’s like greasing the tracks for the new train and applying the brakes gently to the old one.