It’s not news that Shakespeare had Marcus Brutus tell us that “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood leads on to fortune…”, and that the failure to attend to the tide results in misery, and being forever doomed to the shoals of life. Anyone who passes their time on the sea also knows the advantage of making the tide for a journey, or even for the most productive times for sea angling.
It’s equally not news that “time and tide wait for no man” – a quote attributed to Chaucer in the 1300s, but believed to have older roots. There is a suggestion that the “tide” in the above quote refers to a season, rather than a nautical tide, but the intent is the same. We can’t hold back the progression of the tide, the seasons, or the clock.
It seems obvious, right? Without effort, nothing of value happens. I’ve been batting around thoughts on focus, attention and potential in my head for quite a while now, but the thing that I believe we often overlook is how important it is to first make an effort. 
How many days have you had that have passed in a whirlwind of activity, stress and noise, and looking back you felt you could have done better? How many conversations have you been through that at the end you felt you might have let yourself down?
During a period of enforced absence last year, I distracted myself at times by playing virtual poker with people online – not for real money, I hasten to add.
No, I’m not referring to the pretty terrible movie starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Mark (“The Stone”?) Wahlberg. Neither am I thinking about the kind of chronic pain that a lot of us live with as we suffer injuries and deal with aging. I’m thinking about learning through pain, and learning to embrace certain types of obstacles.