The street was crowded, people moving rapidly to their destinations, looking straight ahead, some talking on phones, some looking at their phone screens, and some busily talking to their friends. Almost all of them FOCUSED on something else seemingly more important than what was going on around them. Of course, when crossing a busy intersection most would glance up to see if there was any oncoming traffic, yet even this for the most part was cursory.
Sancho was one of them, and yet not…Sancho had been distracted, as the majority of commuters that day, and caught himself. “FOCUS,” he said out loud to himself, “FOCUS!” Sancho had learned in his HAPKIDO training session this week how unaware and vulnerable most people were when surrounded by literal strangers in public each day, and how this lack of FOCUS was what got people killed, assaulted, and taken advantage of.
All at once Sancho felt something weird, and then he felt an arm come around his neck. He reacted to it immediately, circled and “turtled” his head into his shoulders, raising his hands to protect from the choke. As he turned, he saw his friend from class laughing and shaking his head affirming, “Good job man! Looks like you learned something after all!” Within seconds they were high five-ing, and man hugging, slapping each other’s backs loud and hard.
Sancho’s attack wasn’t life threatening, yet his defense if it had been, was life saving. In life, how often are we caught unaware, and vulnerable to attack, lacking FOCUS? Today we are actually rewarded on social media for being on top of responses to posts, messages, and other meaningless activities that take our FOCUS.
Mainstream media feeds us mostly useless, narrative driven sound bites to distract us from what’s really going on in the world around us. Just like commuters all around Sancho were unaware, and vulnerable, these distractions take our FOCUS from what is most important, that which saves our life.
FOCUS saves life. Remember, life is full of distractions, that are designed to take our FOCUS, and if we are caught unaware, takes our life a little everyday. Save life and FOCUS!
Allen Hughes Life Defense Coach
#lifedefense #focus #allenhughes
