Publicly beating a new mental model into shape. Here goes. First the well known form. Think about moving quickly through physical space. Driving, skiing, snowboarding, skateboarding or similar. There are obstacles in that space. You must be aware of the obstacles, but if you think only about avoiding the obstacles your movements will become oscillating over-corrections until you crash. Instead of the obstacles you have to focus on your path forward. Awareness of the obstacles should be just high enough in your brain to know that they are not part of the path. Easily 90% of brain cycles are the path with 10% or less the obstacles for someone skilled at that form of movement. Now the analogy. The best version of yourself and your best possible life are the path. Every improvement you make, self improvement or something like improving your situation and environment, is a step forward on the path. The outside world and other people are the obstacles. Thinking about what other people are up to is obstacle time. Thinking about where you are going and why is path time. You should strive for the same high ratio of path to obstacle thoughts. I started down this thought process as an anti "news" argument. To extend the analogy, watching the news all day is kind of like driving around with a horrible backseat driver. We've all had that person who was yelling car!, red light!, kid!, stop sign!, deer! While you are trying to drive. They think they are helping but really they are pushing you into a reactionary "avoid the obstacle" mode of driving instead of a proactive "follow the path" way of thinking while driving.