Two Hours Looking for Gold

I went gold panning for the first time.

For two hours, I stood in a river swirling gravel and water around in a pan, looking for tiny flecks of gold.

We even found some.

I had my phone with me.

At one point, I tried putting music on.

It felt wrong almost immediately, so I turned it off.

Then something strange happened.

I forgot about my phone completely.

Two hours went by like it was twenty minutes.

Which is ridiculous.

I can barely sit through a two hour movie without getting restless.

But put me in a river with a pan full of rocks and apparently I have the focus of a Buddhist monk.

That got me thinking.

I have blamed my attention span plenty of times.

Maybe you have too.

But gold panning made me wonder if that is always fair.

I was not trying to concentrate.

I was not using a timer, putting my phone in another room, or forcing myself to stay focused.

I was just completely engaged in what I was doing.

My hands were busy.

I had something specific I was looking for.

Every pan gave me a result, and I wanted to do the next one.

Maybe we do not always have an attention problem.

Sometimes we have an engagement problem.

I think that is an important distinction.

Because the next time I find myself reaching for my phone every three minutes, maybe the question is not,

“How do I become more disciplined?”

Maybe the better question is,

“Why am I so disengaged from what I am doing?”

That is a much more useful question.

So pay attention this week.

Notice the things where thirty minutes feels like three hours.

Then notice the things where three hours disappears.

There might be something worth learning in the difference.