Thanks for such a thought provoking post - The take away for me is to keep focused on that machine gun pinning you down at all times or you could lose your head.

As someone who suffers from anxiety, I am constantly trying to be aware of everything; constantly taking in stimuli to try to make best choices - focusing more specifically on the big ticket item of the time is an important conscious choice and is a positive thing to overcoming fear and getting the job done.

A friend of mine once told me another analogy which was simular/but more about ignoring bullies. I can't recall the exact words or origins, but I think it was from China, it was something like this:

'If you are walking down the street to get to school on time, but walk by a neighbors house only to be scared by a barking dog jumping at the fence...what do you do?. If your scared you might turn around and go home, or walk across the street, either way it distracted you from your mission and won you nothing, it won a point for it's ego and you won being late for school...Really, it was just a barking dog to be ignored'.

To me it's about fear, control and power.

Cheers