There is a need to burn the bridge behind you before you can commit to the road ahead. This is the sort of single-minded focus that allows for temporary transcendence from mediocrity. If there isn’t a cultivated sense of urgency that can endure throughout a specific duration of effort, than the mind’s predilection to dilute itself through meandering associations of thought will defeat the endeavour. The mind doesn’t operate like a computer; a machine that is designed to operate by some specific design and order that can be relied upon. It is mercurial and swerves by pandering to every next fitful desire, random encounter, or fateful event. The relatively comfortable life of a modern man makes it very unlikely for him to choose to circumvent this inherent tendency and seek out conditions that can allow him to trespass beyond the limitations of his native faculties. Dilution and entropy are the natural characteristics of a man living outside the reach of immediate danger. The bridge has to be burnt behind him in order to eliminate the option of changing course. The conditions of his environment must necessitate that his faculties come together and proceed in a standing march towards an unusual but worthwhile goal.