Why doing less for a prolonged period of time is unsustainable, and would inevitably lead to failure, even if that is your definition of focus.

When you’re on your way out of rock-bottom, you might think that the shortest pathway of extracting yourself out of there is that of elimination. You begin to do less. You begin to deprive yourself. You begin to stop doing anything that has nothing to do with getting you out of the horrible situation you’re currently trapped in. Even if this thing is a basic necessity. Even if this thing is one of your nonnegotiable needs. Even if you can’t live without this thing. Even if this thing will help make you better in the long-term. Even if this thing is essential for your improvement, success, happiness, mental health, sanity, or well-being. Even if you cannot survive without those type of things. You do so, because you think the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. You do so, because you think this would help you get there faster. By deeming everything else a distraction, you eliminate everything that is not directly involved in the attainment of your goals from your to-do lists, until further notice. Or until you get there, wherever there is, with disregard to how long that might take you, that is, with total disregard to how much you intend to starve yourself and remain in such deprivation.

The problem is that this ensures the impossibility of reaching your goals even further.

By doing nothing during the time where you can consider yourself still stuck under unlivable conditions, or circumstances, or a horrible situation, except what is absolutely necessary or essential for you to save yourself or make your escape plan work, you are only making it incredibly harder for yourself to ever make it. You are lowering your chances of ever making it out of there. It won’t be an exaggeration to claim that the single most reason you might fail to ever get yourself out of this mess could be following a strategy of elimination, where you remove any item that does not directly lead to the success of your escape plan from your plans. The plans that are supposed to get you out of this mess for good. By doing less here, you will never get there faster. You will just ensure you will never make it out of there alive.

For a simple reason. Reward. You need reward. Without any reward, you will not be able to function, much less stay motivated, and in control of yourself and your thoughts. I know this might sound controversial, but, the pathway to extraordinary results almost always involves doing more than the bare minimum you think you need to do, accomplish, or get through, in order to hit those seemingly impossible to reach goals. And not everything that needs to be part of your plan has to lead to the attainment of such goals in a straightforward manner. Sometimes it is just physical exercise, to stay in shape, and have more energy and enthusiasm, to work on those goals. Even if exercise alone, will never get you closer to your goals. But you can’t hit those goals if you’re someone who’s sedentary, who never exercises, or never gets enough exercise on the daily.

You will not get there because of those other things that do not lead to the attainment of your goals in a straightforward manner, but you will never get there, and you will never make it out of your horrible situation, or escape the unlivable circumstances, conditions, or environment you’re currently stuck or trapped in, unless you add those seemingly unrelated things to your escape plan, that the very existence of them alone without anything else will never move you forward or closer to your goals, or towards making your escape plan work, unless they’re added to the essential stuff that your plan can’t exist without, that is, the straightforward steps that are necessary to make you get out of this mess, because only together, only when applied together, will your escape plan finally work.

You can’t have an escape plan without the essential straightforward stuff that will make you get out of this hell hole you’re trapped in. But those essential straightforward steps alone are not enough to make the plan succeed. You still need to add to such plan all what you think is unnecessary or non-essential to the success of your plan, because without such things, your escape plan will never work. And you can consider anything that has any helpful or beneficial effects on you to fall under this category. The category of things that alone they will never get you closer to your goals or the success of your escape plan, at least not in a straightforward manner, because they are still essential, considering that the success of the whole escape plan is contingent upon their existence, and without any of these things, your escape plan is bound to fail, and can never work. Anything that can be helpful and can make you more able to succeed and get through anything can fall under this aforementioned complimentary to the main steps of your escape plan category. Even though your escape plan contains all the essential stuff that if you did, you’re supposed to make it out of this horrible situation. But this is only true theoretically speaking. In practice, you need to take care of your state, and do all the other stuff, however seemingly unrelated to the attainment of any of your goals that are an integral part of your escape plan, that without which, you don’t have an escape plan in the first place, if you ever hope to make it out of this disaster someday.

You can’t get there without reward. You cannot make it anywhere without enough reward in your system or your body.

Anything that decreases it, for any reason, is always a cause for failure, especially in the long-term.