Hocus, Focus.

Exploring ideas of Happiness, Focus, and Adventure.

Here we go, I have no idea how this is gonna go, but fuck it. Here’s some ‘things’ that I’ve been exploring lately.

Things I’ve been curious about;

Happiness, and the eternal search for it.

I believe to be ‘happy’ is SO subjective to the individual. For me, it’s pretty low key, a morning run, getting the shot (picture, not tequila), or helping out a friend with something. The small things generally light me up.

I listened to this podcast by Arthur C. Brooks (Harvard professor, PhD social scientist, #1 bestselling author) and Rich Roll (ultra - runner/interviews interesting humans) on Cracking the code of Happiness.

Here’s what I took away, Happiness can be boiled down to a formula of Enjoyment + Satisfaction + Purpose/ Balance + abundance = Happiness. Simple, yeah right.

It also touches on a person’s life journey of Happiness, and how it evolves as you age. Simplified (by me), a life journey is an understanding of certain topics or subjects, practicing them to get life experience(s), and then sharing those learnings with others. Simple. Pffft. If only it was.

Anyway, I would highly recommend having a listen here.

Things I’ve seen lately;

I shoot mainly film, I have a wee Leica Minilux 35mm that I brought at a cash converters in South Australia. (Talk about a striking gold) - It comes everywhere with me. This is what I’ve seen lately…

Things that have made me stop, be present, and capture the moment.

Things I’ve learnt (about myself);

In a world filled with distractions, how do you stay on the task at hand? - To me focus is a superpower. (Insert Marvel theme music here)

Over the last 16 months, I’ve been training my focus. Training focus? How the fuck do you train something, that at times can be so hard to wrangle. It’s like only having one handful of salt and vinny chips, rather than the whole bag.

Well, I’ll tell ya - For me it was ‘focusing’ on two things.

1.    Being conscious when things got hard, and I reached for a distraction. (9 times outta 10 it was my phone)

2.    How could I build structure or discipline into my day to remove distraction and create opportunity.

1. Things getting hard.

I came to realise when things got hard, it was a sign of growth, or that I didn’t wanna deal with something (usually a feeling, a thought, or a task) - So, distraction came in. (Nek minute I’m doom scrolling, 84 weeks deep in ya cousin’s dogs IG, doing the washing, or reorganising my entire room). I digress. Or distract ;)

When I realised my pattern, I acknowledged the next ‘hard’ moment, and pushed past that feeling of looking for a distraction. I just sat with the uncomfortable thought/task/moment. And pushed through and completed it.

And you know what, I benefited from it, a new learning, or understanding about myself came from it.

Take away: When things get hard, or I try to distract myself. Stay on task, push through the distraction. It’s another rep in training my focus muscle.

2.Building structure or discipline into my day.

I work mainly in time blocks, rather than task based. Meaning, I’ll block out times of my day to work or create certain things. [e.g. thinking time, sitting, or walking – I feel I get my best ideas when I’ve blocked out time to move and think)

This is like doing a super set of focus training. Removing distractions (mainly my phone, email, or people) to get something done.

How does this show up in my life?

I don’t go on any socials until 12pm each Monday - Friday + Sunday, and not at all on Saturday.

My results so far? Fucken amazing. That time (that I would be doom scrolling) is now dedicate to things I’m creating (like this article), living in the present, and/or pushing passed that ‘hard’ moment or learning/meeting new things or people. (Cause I’m actually engaging with the world around me).

By having structure in some areas of my life, allows for more opportunity/spontaneity in others.

This is just a small glimpse on how I train my focus muscle. If you wanna learn more - I would recommend James Clears book - ‘Atomic Habits’ if you wanted to deep dive into all things habits.

What things are coming up;

Mid-April, I’m heading back home to Aotearoa, this time for me. Not a wedding, or visiting someone, for me.

I’m excited, as I’ll be exploring a new part of my beautiful homeland with a little more detail. One of the great hikes, the Routeburn track.

The Routeburn, is a 3-day hike that transverses between Mount Aspiring National Park and Fiordland National Park - (it’s a 33km, 1250m elevation hike) and I’ll look to run it in a morning. (Maybe 4 or 5 hours).

I’m pumped to share a little more about this next month, but wanted to leave you with a little teaser - until then follow along on my adventure via my IG.

WOAH, if you’ve got this far, well done and thank you!

I truly hope that you’ve taken some learnings away from this mind dump from (at times) a very over stimulated mind.

I see feedback as a gift, so if you have any insights, learnings, or comments, I will welcome them in the space below or hit me up directly. Also, if someone came to mind whilst reading this, send it over to them. Share the knowledge.

As always, move with curiosity,

Willocks x