Focus on What You Want, Not What You're Against: How to Aim Your Rage at Real Change
Focus on What You Want, Not What You're Against: How to Aim Your Rage at Real Change
On aiming your rage at what you love, taking charge of your attention, and pointing your energy at the world you actually want to see.
When rage rises over the state of the world, there's one question that changes everything: where's the love in it? Because where your attention goes, your energy flows — so it matters enormously whether you aim it at what you want or what you're against.
It's a fiery year, and if you're paying attention to how people are being treated, you may know that exhausting swing between despair — that heavy, powerless heaviness — and rage, which erupts when it all becomes too much, like a volcano that looked like a peaceful mountain until, suddenly, it didn't. Rage is animating; it makes you need to do something. So let's make sure that something is aimed well.
One
Take Charge of Your Own Attention First
You have real agency over one thing: where you point your attention, your time, your energy, and your love. That's where the work begins. And here's the subtle trap so many of us fall into, individually and collectively — we pour that attention onto what we don't want. It's easy to do and hard to notice. So build one simple habit: whatever you're focusing on, pause and ask, do I love this? If the honest answer is no, that's your signal that your energy has drifted onto the very thing you'd like to change.
Two
Focus on the Outcome You Actually Love
Think about how we rally against cancer — the marches, the fundraisers, all with our attention fixed on cancer. But our minds, bodies, and energy fields don't register the difference between for and against; they simply amplify whatever we're focused on. What we actually love isn't being against a disease — it's vibrant, healthy, thriving bodies. The same is true for everything you care about. If what you long for is justice, then let your focus rest on justice itself: dignity, respect, freedom, the ability to choose and participate, abundance, and honor. Make sure your inner world, your conversations, and even the words on your sign point squarely at what you want rather than what you're against. It's less mental gymnastics, and far more powerful.
Your energy doesn't know “for” from “against.” It simply amplifies whatever you focus on.
Three
Turn the Same Focus Toward Your Inner Voice
This works inward, too. If there's a chirpy, critical voice in your head cataloguing everything that's wrong with you, you don't have to fight it. Simply acknowledge it: thank you for trying to keep me safe. Then deliberately choose the other voice — the one that reminds you that you're doing everything you can in this moment, that you're loved, needed, valued, and wonderfully unique, and that you're doing a great job. Cultivate that voice, or the voice of spirit if it feels like it comes from beyond you, and let it land. Done gently, this brings a little cooling to the rage, turning that fire into a soft steam bath for your soul.
Come focus on what we love, together
The Love Lady community is a place to aim our energy at what we truly want — more dignity, more freedom, more joy — and to keep each other pointed toward the world we'd love to see. Bring your fire; let's aim it well.
Join the Community— Juli Martin, The Love Lady
