Tunnel Vision

When a bit of tunnel vision can be a good thing.

Peripheral Vision Loss (PVL), more commonly known as tunnel vision, is a symptom, rather than a disease.

Migraines, glaucoma, various genetic conditions - all can result in tunnel vision, where your sight narrows. Objects along the edge of your field of view disappear or drop off, while the center can seem to stretch out.

This is generally considered to be a Bad Thing, and certainly from an optical standpoint that’s correct. The Lord made our eyes able to focus in on what’s in front of us - but not so much that we can’t see an incoming football out of “the corner of our eye.”

But when it comes to navigating life as a Christian man in the real world, I think a bit of tunnel vision can be a good thing.

I’m not onto something new here. Medieval monks had entire rules intended to guide and shape their lives to be more single-minded, more tunnel-visioned. Today, there’s no living by a set standard of rules; instead, you can pay $18,000 to go to an Alpha Male camp and learn to unlock a whole new level of focus.

It’s interesting that we often, correctly, join those two. The most successful men are often those who develop tunnel vision onto a singular goal.

So what do we do in a world that prioritises multitasking, rather than monotasking, and of handling any number of goals simultaneously?

How should a guy handle having so much in his peripheral vision that the center gets lost?

Confession

I’m more guilty of this than most. Procrastination is and was my thing; I’m still guilty of leaving things to the last minute and paying the price. But the older I get, the more I realise that just isn’t a good way to live. There’s no counting the emotional toll that takes on you after a while and the stress it causes. To tie it back into the analogy, the longer you leave something lingering in your peripheral vision, the more it crowds into the center - and pushes out whatever you should be focusing on.

Single-eyed tunnel vision

There’s a similar biblical idea here as well. In Matthew 6, directly following the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus instructed His followers to have a clear eye. In His analogy, the eye didn’t just focus on external objects; it transmitted the light from inside us.

Or, as Jesus instructed, it should transmit that light.

Of course, that light frequently gets clouded, or doesn’t shine through at all. In Matthew 6 and the following chapters, Jesus addresses that situation in much more detail; read it here.

But for our purposes today, let’s take that same principle and apply it to our original idea.

Lifestyle Maintenance: Keeping the Main Thing, the Main Thing

Multitasking is a great skill, but I’d argue that monotasking is the area most guys struggle with the most.

We think we’re good at juggling priorities, but we let things slip. We certainly mean to tackle that honey-do list, or to not forget the promise we made to catch up with an old friend, or to spend more time reading - but then, well, life happens.

And before you know it, everything from the periphery has actually become your priority. Everything suffers. You miss goals, and in creeps a sense of discontent, a malaise that can be a real mind-killer.

This is a call for focus.

Perfect Tunnel Vision

Alright, so I’ve convinced you that tunnel vision and focus are good things. But you’re an average Christian guy trying to live in a fractured and mind-numbingly-busy world. What does perfect tunnel vision look like?

• Selective. Focus turns to obsession, unless you can control it. Think of a camera lens; you want to be able to adjust and “zoom in,” without going too far. Camera, not a microscope.

• Prioritised. On most modern smartphones, you can tap the camera to highlight which part of a picture you want to focus. The camera should brighten and emphasise that part, letting you compose the image better. Likewise, you need tunnel vision that is selective and that selects things according to a clear priority; in our case, a priority set by our faith.

• Adjustable. I’m arguing against multitasking - but as a concession, work on developing an adjustable tunnel vision. To paraphrase Scripture, whatever projects you’re working on now, do them to your utmost right now - and be prepared to carry over that same focus to your next project.

A selective, prioritised, adjustable tunnel vision gives you the ability to establish rules of engagement for your multi-tasking life. You should also have some over-arching goals that shape everything; to go back to our photography analogy, think of a particular artistic style (in this case, a Christian, Word-centred lifestyle) that provides an end-goal for all your individual projects and priorities.

Confession II

This newsletter comes from a place of weakness. I didn’t send a single one in March, due at least in part to a sloppy approach to life that cost me valuable time.

But life is a struggle, man, and that means that by God’s grace we get new chances every day to tackle our problems. Develop a practice of focus, and reap the rewards.

Action Points

• Deep Work. What I’m calling “tunnel vision,” Cal Newport calls “deep work,” in a book by the same name. He applies it more narrowly, but the book is a great read. The TL;DR version - 90-minute slots, 2-3 times per day, for maximum productivity.

• Exercise! Better physical fitness boosts natural testosterone levels. Testosterone has an unknown impact on mental acuity (basically, it has an effect, but boy, is it hard to measure!), but the tie between testosterone and mood (i.e., depression) is much clearer. And in my own experience, a clearer mind means better focus. So go hit the gym!

Shoutout!

Come for the newsletter, stay for the art! You’ll notice that TfM has a new, swanky logo, drawn by our resident graphic artist Jim Stewart Cartoons (@jimstewart9020). Jim specialises in UK editorial cartoons, but he crafted one for the newsletter and I’m eternally grateful. Check him out!