What a Cat, a Cup, and a Negotiation Taught Me About Clarity
The art of shifting focus that started with watching a cat in action!
In a moment of distraction , I found myself watching yet another viral clip, a cat trying to guess which of three upside-down cups hid a treat. The cups shuffled. The humans cheered. The cat hesitated. And for some reason, I couldn’t look away.
At first, I was fixated on the cat, its twitching ears, its tentative paw hovering over the wrong cup. But somewhere between the first view and the next, my focus shifted. I stopped watching the cat and began watching the cup that mattered, the one that first hid the treat. Suddenly, I could track it flawlessly. Shuffle after shuffle, I knew exactly where the treat was. I had watched similar videos earlier, and at best I would intelligently guess the right cup myself. This time was different.
That subtle switch, from watching the player to tracking the pattern, felt strangely revealing. No more about trying harder; it became all about focusing smarter.
And it made me realize how much of life operates like that simple game.
The Science Behind Focus
What I had stumbled into, without realizing it, was a cognitive phenomenon called selective attention, our brain’s ability to filter out the noise and zero in on what’s relevant. Neuroscientists describe it as a kind of mental push–pull system: some neurons amplify task-relevant information while others suppress distractions.
The more you train it, the better it gets. With time, you’re no longer forcing yourself to focus; your brain naturally knows what to prioritize.
Meditation: A Tool for Practicing the Shift
That’s also what meditation trains us to do, to watch our thoughts the way I learned to watch that cup.
Even short mindfulness practice, studies show, can reshape the brain’s attentional networks. With regular training, people sustain focus longer, react less impulsively, and switch between modes of attention more fluidly.
Over time, meditation teaches you to hold focus without gripping it too tightly, to observe without getting entangled. It’s an exercise in precision and softness, discipline and surrender.
Reframing the Frame
But attention is more than what we focus on. It’s also about how we frame it. Not through a cat video this time, but during a tough negotiation.
I realized I was constantly toggling between two channels: first, reading the other person, their tone, body language, the subtle shifts in energy, and second, listening inward to my own thoughts before responding. It was a dance of attention.
When I stayed too long in one mode, overanalyzing the other person or getting lost in my own internal monologue, I’d lose balance. But when I consciously switched between the two, something clicked and I became a better negotiator - calmer, clearer, more attuned.
I understood, sometimes, focus means staying fixed (like tracking the cup), and sometimes it means shifting deliberately (like alternating between outward and inward awareness). Both demand mindfulness. Both are acts of conscious framing.
The Everyday Art of Attention
Whether it’s a cat game or a business deal, attention is always a choice. The world doesn’t necessarily get quieter. We just learn which parts to turn down.
The deeper I go into meditation and neuroscience, the more I see the same truth mirrored everywhere: clarity comes from choosing what to think about.
In the end, life might just be one big shell game, full of moving parts, shifting noise, and subtle cues. The real skill lies in knowing where the treat is, and when to look inward to find it.
Literally what I was thinking today!