Focus

Sometimes, a person loves something so much that it is all they think about. For my dad at the moment, it is fixing our house to sell, and finding the right house to move into. For me, at least until Friday, it was Dave Matthews Band. We had tickets for a few months to the show on Friday, and the closer the show came, the more obsessed I became.

The picture above is the album cover from their latest release, Big Whiskey and the Groo Grux King . Friday's show was part of their 2009 summer tour supporting the album, which is largely about their late saxophonist, Leroi Moore. The show was a blast, and I will never forget it, but it's not the show that I want to discuss.

"Hype" can get really big. The hype in my life for this event was enormous. I thought about the show every day after we got tickets. I listened to DMB songs almost every day. The only CD for a straight two weeks was the new one, and it was the only thing that was played for those two weeks. I was more excited for this concert than I have been for nearly everything else that I've done. It ended up being one of the coolest things I've seen, right behind Africa (Which was also this year. Yeah, big year for the Irish American).

Not only was I excited, I was incredibly focused on it. I bought songs, learned their history, the members, and listened to them constantly. I have found that I get like this when I am truly excited for something. It was the same way with my Africa trip. My computer was only used to learn about South Africa, look at pictures of South Africa, and to learn what I would be doing in South Africa. If there is one way to tell how excited a person is for something, this has to be it. When they are completely taken over by the subject, they are truly excited. Other times, they may say they are excited, but maybe not as much as they could be.

It is focus that truly shows what we enjoy, because if we didn't love it, why would we focus on it? People who are incredibly good at what they do, are likely very focused in their work. They also likely enjoy their work tremendously, or else they wouldn't work so hard. Why would you develop a skill that you don't enjoy and isn't necessary to survive? True focus, in this way, is reserved only for the things which we love.