Ricardo, a formerly homeless man, told the following story.
I woke up one cold, raw morning, my head in the gutter, in a pool of green vomit.
It wasn’t the first time.
But, this time I knew that I was going to die — unless I did something to save myself.
It was like a switch in my brain that was stuck.
I had to flip it.
Didn’t know how to do it or if I could.
It was life or death.
If I stayed in the gutter I would die. I knew that for sure.
So, with the greatest effort of my life I focused on what was in front of me.
It wasn’t a pleasant sight.
But, it was real.
Slowly, I rose from the cold pavement.
Took my first steps away from the gutter.
I needed help. That was for sure.
But all the help in the world wouldn’t be enough if I didn’t help myself first.
I did…
I stumbled in the direction of a local homeless shelter on skid row.
I was filthy and stinking, and truly an awful sight.
There must have been something in my bloodshot eyes that convinced the guy at the front desk to call the shelter director.
When he came down, I told him I needed help.
I told him I would stop drinking, that I would work to better myself.
He decided to help me.
It took nine long months before I was employable, could find a job and a halfway house to live in.
Day-by-day I got back on my feet.
I think about it many times.
If I hadn’t flipped that switch in my brain I wouldn’t be alive today.
—
The switch Ricardo turned on was focus, the first and most essential choice that makes all other choices possible.
Without focus — the capacity to turn on your mental awareness — even the simplest actions are out of your control.
Focus is volitional.
Before that crucial moment in the gutter, Ricardo was living a life out of focus.
He was a straw in the wind, at the mercy of random events.
Once he focused — turned on his mental awareness and faced reality — he was ready to become a man again.
—
“In any hour and issue of his life, man is free to think or to evade that effort.” — Ayn Rand
“It is for want of thinking that most men are undone.” — Thomas Fuller
“Focus is the readiness to think and as such the precondition of thinking.” — Leonard Peikoff
