According to Nobel Laurette Daniel Kahneman, ‘Nothing is ever as important as what you’re thinking about while you’re thinking about it.’ This is something most of us have experienced. At some point or the other, we have all obsessed over a particular thing. By doing so, we magnify that particular thing so much in our head that it consumes and impacts all our thoughts. It becomes the prism from which we make sense of all other things.
It leads us to give excessive importance to one factor of our life and impairs our ability to gauge its future utility. For instance, attaching personal happiness to the need of buying material goods—a fancy new car, an expensive watch or posses- sion of a rare artefact. Just like items, Focusing Illusion also works on intangible fixations. It could be an infatuation with a particular job, a dream school or invite to an exclusive event.
The best way to counter Focusing Illusion is to simply take control of the said illusion. To consciously decide and determine the lens with which you want understand. The habit of writing a gratitude journal is one of the more powerful ways of taking charge of your Focusing Illusion. This ensures you focus on the progress and happy thoughts.
