Focused Like a Laser

Focus is often compared to light. If you’re an energetic person, you give off sixty watts of light all the time. You illuminate any room you’re in with your energy!

However, that same energy could also cut through steel if it was focused properly.

I can certainly vouch for the focused approach to getting things done, and it’s a very useful analogy! Most folks can see what you mean right away: focus allows you to get more things done instead of spraying your energy all around at random.

Like a lot of good analogies, the underlying reality doesn’t quite support the assertions made. As usual, it’s complicated! Let’s take a look at why.

You may already know that laser is a made-up word. It’s an abbreviation for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. This name gives us our first clue that this isn’t simply a focused light bulb. There’s more going on here.

At its core, a laser has what’s called a medium. This can be solid, liquid, or gas, but you need a bunch of atoms that can be excited to emit light. Common mediums include gases, gemstones, and semiconductors. This medium sits in the laser chamber.

Behind the medium, you need something that blasts a steady stream of energy into the medium itself. This could be as simple as a high intensity lamp or an electrical current. Energy needs to go in, and that’s the important thing.

Inside the laser chamber are two mirrors. One highly reflective mirror bounces the light back into the chamber, allowing it to bounce back and forth and interact with the atoms.

These atoms get into an excited state, kind of like climbing up a ladder and holding onto a weight they could then drop to the ground. Their electrons are at higher energy levels, so to speak. When more atoms are in the excited state than in the ground state, we’ve reached a state called population inversion.

Remember when I told you physicists are bad at naming things?

Anyway, these atoms are ready to drop a photon, in essence. When energy is sent into the chamber, it stimulates an excited atom, which releases its energetic photon. Like a teenager moving away from home, it’s in a hurry to get out of the atom, and it blasts out with tremendous energy.

The newly released photon can now stimulate other excited atoms to release photons as well. This creates a chain reaction, amplifying the light within the chamber. That partially reflective mirror allows a small portion of the amplified light to escape the chamber.

What comes out is a beam that can cut through steel, depending on what type of material you start with.

Let’s return to our original analogy, and the reason my brain went down this weird pathway today.

Focused people can indeed apply their energy like a laser if they turn their focus to a task. However, the type of material in the chamber matters a great deal.

This means putting the right things into your body and mind. If you’re doing a physically demanding task today like an intense cardio workout, you’ll need to eat some carbs and lean protein, so your body has the fuel it needs.

If you’re going to be using your mind to solve a specific problem, you might need to bone up on the material so you understand it. And, there’s a good chance your activities require some mental and physical focus, like making a good meal from scratch or running a business.

Regardless, you have to put the right material into the chamber, or else you’ll end up with a light bulb and not a laser. You also have to have some energy you’re willing to put to use in the first place, like the electricity or light that blasts into the laser’s chamber to stimulate the medium.

This is your enthusiasm. If you have enough enthusiasm and the right materials in your medium, you can focus your energy and accomplish incredible things.

Finally, you need a reflective mirror to keep the energy inside your chamber so it can build up. This is taking enough time to become obsessed.

Have you been able to focus intensely on one task? What did that task turn out like? Would you change anything about it (medium, energy input)?