The Problem With Being Too Focused

When we are too close, the detail becomes the whole picture.

Looking at a target is useful…staring at it is a different thing entirely…

There is an expression from French psychologist Pierre Janet that I have always liked: idée fixe.

It means, quite literally, a fixed idea. But in psychological terms it points to something more interesting than simply having a strong opinion or thinking about something a great deal. An idée fixe is an idea that begins to dominate attention, shaping what we notice, what we ignore, and eventually how we interpret what is happening around us.

Most of us have experienced this in one form or another.

A problem appears, and we think about it. Fair enough. Then we think about it some more. We begin looking for solutions, explanations, causes, consequences and signs that things are getting better or worse. Before long, what began as one issue among many has become the issue.

That is where trouble can begin.

Attention Has a Magnifying Effect

Attention has a magnifying effect. Whatever we focus on tends to grow in importance, at least in our experience. The more attention we give something, the more significant it appears, and the more significant it appears, the more attention we feel it deserves. Very quickly, we can find ourselves in a loop.

The idea starts to organize perception.

Someone who believes a relationship is failing begins noticing every awkward silence and every delayed reply. Someone who believes they are not doing well starts registering every mistake and overlooking the things they are getting right. A person who is angry about a particular issue can begin interpreting almost everything through that one frame.

The fixed idea does not merely sit in the mind. It becomes a lens.

Target Fixation

Years ago, while playing a sophisticated flight simulation, I ran into a version of this phenomenon called target fixation. Pilots are trained to avoid becoming so focused on the thing directly ahead of them that they lose awareness of everything else around them. In a simulation, this could mean concentrating so intensely on the target that altitude, speed and the surrounding environment almost disappeared from attention.

The lesson stayed with me because it applies far beyond aviation.

The problem is not the focus itself. Focus is useful. We need it to solve problems, reach goals, improve skills and get things done. The problem begins when focus becomes narrowing, and narrowing becomes exclusion.

At that point, we may still think we are being rational and thorough, when in fact we are simply staring at the same thing from the same angle.

This is particularly dangerous because the thing we are focused on may be completely real.

The difficult relationship may really be difficult. The financial concern may be legitimate. The health worry may deserve attention. The mistake is not in noticing these things. The mistake is allowing them to become so dominant that they push everything else out of the picture.

What Am I Not Seeing?

That is why one of the most useful questions we can ask ourselves is this:

What am I not seeing because I am looking so intently at this?

It is a simple question, but it can change the entire frame.

If one part of your life is going badly, what is going well? If you are convinced there is only one explanation for something, what are two or three others? If you are locked onto one solution, what would you consider if that solution were unavailable? If one person has become the centre of your frustration, what else is contributing to the situation?

None of this means denying reality or forcing ourselves to “think positive.” I have never found that particularly useful when it simply means replacing an unpleasant distortion with a cheerful one. What we want is not positive thinking. We want accurate thinking.

Accuracy usually requires a wider field of view.

It also helps to create some distance. Imagine that a good friend came to you with exactly the same problem. What would you notice? What would you ask? What possibilities might seem obvious from the outside that are difficult to see from the inside?

Sometimes that shift is enough to loosen the grip of the fixed idea.

A useful image is to think of standing too close to a painting. From six inches away, you see brushstrokes, imperfections and tiny areas of colour. Step back, and suddenly there is a landscape. Nothing in the painting has changed. Only your perspective has changed.

The same is true of many problems.

When we are too close, the detail becomes the whole picture.

So perhaps the occasional mental habit worth developing is simply to widen the frame. Look at the problem, certainly, but also look beside it. Look behind it. Look at what has changed since you first formed your opinion. Look at what other people see. Look at the evidence that does not fit your first conclusion.

And every so often, ask whether the idea that once seemed so important still deserves quite so much space in your head.

The danger of an idée fixe is not that the idea must be false.

It may be completely true.

The danger is that it becomes the only thing we can see.

- Mike Mandel