The first order of man is mastery of the torch that is attention.
Most of us are seeing through other peoples torches, or we are wearing a helmet torch and not aware that we can take it off and illuminate in any direction.
We spend whole lives illuminating only what falls in front of us by accident.
But the torch can be taken in both hands.
It can be aimed.
When you control your attention you realise that what you were looking at is a very small part of the bigger picture.
It was never the world.
It was only where the light happened to fall.
The world is completely different for the man who can direct the light, and gets progressively better at it.
The frustration, the boredom, the difficulty, it all changes when you control your attention.
When you learn to expand your attention beam, brighten the light, to be able to grip it with both hands and point it on the way.
Your world expands and so do you.
This is done by practice. By Stepping back. You train the muscle that holds it, so it doesn't drift the moment you stop attending. You sit still - meditate -until you feel your hand on the torch again. And then, the whole discipline in one act: you choose where the light goes, and you keep it there.
Exercise, endurance and goals, are ways to sharpen and improve your attention.
The world exists as a training ground to improve our attention.
When you learn to aim the torch, you are no longer a man watching what happens to be lit. You are the one illuminating the world.
You become free.