Focused attention, persistence and physical effort are requirements to completing any task. This is why immediate focus on the task at hand as well as long term focus and concentration is the largest predicator of success that you can have control over.
This ability is more important than IQ or the socio economic status of the family you grew up in for determining career success, financial success and health [1]
Time is a commodity and life is short. This is another reason why focus and concentration are so important. The simple fact is that without them, you won’t have the time and resources to accomplish or simply pursue your most precious goals.
Pursuit and accomplishment can be sources of deep satisfaction.
There’s another side though…
For me, what I accomplish by the end of my life doesn’t really matter a lick. But what does matter is the state of mind, the flow and satisfaction I get when I am fully absorbed in a challenging task that I enjoy, RIGHT NOW.
“Passion, purpose, and mastery aren’t the result of inconsistent effort.
Pick something that seems fun or useful and start working on it. Choosing something and moving forward is more important than choosing the right thing. You can always practice something else later if this doesn’t work out.” [2]
The Power Of Focusing On Yourself For 60 Days
The benefit I see in focus is that it lets me acquire a state where I feel absorbed and content in action.
For example, if I only try a dance step a couple times before jumping to another one… I can never acquire the ability to get lost in the joy of my body responding automatically to the music.
It’s a common theme in the idea of mastery.
The reason I’ve been so hooked on physical fitness for my whole life is the process of it all. I take action, that action has a reaction. Either forward progress or not. It is impartial in a world where many goals are effected by external variables and influences. Strength training rewards me during the process of striving for further goals as well. It teaches me many mental skills that transfer to other areas of life like patience, focus, commitment, discipline, willpower, continuous study and consistency.
The thing about fitness goals is you control the outcome. This is important. Focus on goals that don’t involve external factors that can shut you down. Goals that include external variables outside your control involve luck. You can’t influence all the variables and this will only cause you frustration and anxiety.
There is more here to be said about only pursuing goals that have intrinsic value to you. Where the process is as much of a reward as the outcome.
What’s the lesson here?
Focus only on goals that are under your control. These goals under your control can then be blessed by luck sometimes and lead to bigger things but that’s not your main concern.
Habits Put Focus On Autopilot
And this is where habits come in – The things you focus on shouldn’t be outcomes, You need to focus on behaviours. Daily behaviours. Habits.
You can release your attachment to the outcome when your daily habits are built into your routine. The work gets done, and time does the rest. You do the work regardless of how you feel. Don’t try to be motivated enough to do the work. Learn to do the right thing, in any environment, any emotion and any energy level.
This kind of work has built in rewards such as satisfaction in your self-reliance or building self-discipline. If you fail at the over all outcome, you still win daily.
Why Focus Is The Antidote To Personal Development
So much personal development advice tries to motivate you and develop you into some other person wired for success. All you really need is to be focused, persistent and show up to do the work regardless of how you feel.
It’s a freeing way to live.
Regardless of circumstances, feelings, outcomes… you do the action. It takes away all mental gymnastics and frees you to suck it up and put one foot in front of the other.
If you release attachment to outcomes, then you will show up and do the work regardless of how you feel. I have sluffed off things when I didn’t feel like I was ready to give 100%. This is faulty logic. It’s attachment to a lot of things. Attachment to what people will think if I don’t perform. Attachment to the emotion of feeling stupid. A ton of things.
The only way to fix a lack of focus is reduce your distractors.
Distractors can be anything from social media to having too many goals. Too many goals reduce the amount of work that can be done on any individual goal.
How many goals are too many? You can have as many goals as you can make forward progress on in the time frame that is acceptable to you.
The more you are distracted from one single thing, the more dissipated your energy, effort and focus.
Be very careful how many goals you set.
Make Focus Your SuperPower
Distractions rob you of everything thats important.
A man falls down in the lobby of a bank, racked by convulsions. He froths at the mouth and twists in ghastly positions with claw like hands. Meanwhile, the bank is robbed of everything valuable.
This is just like life. Distractions are not free mental adventures. Time is not free. It is limited and your central goals require both time and effort. Both have limited supplies.
Without focus, your resources are scattered to the wind and your field of dreams becomes a harvest of barren sorrows.
Concentration and unwavering dedication to a single purpose goes hand-in-hand with all great accomplishment. The ability to concentrate without diversion on a single subject, to the exclusion of all others, explains why ordinary people achieve extraordinary things.
An average individual with average capabilities bringing all of their mental powers to bear on the achievement of a single goal, will accomplish more than a seemingly more fortunate person who spreads focus on several goals at once.
You Need Concentration Of Effort Now More Than Ever
He who scatters his efforts in this intense, concentrated age, cannot hope to succeed at any of their goals.
The jack of all trades and master of none may find constant busyness but seldom finds satisfaction. You’ll find the flow of life in the process towards higher skill levels.
It’s not the person that works hardest that wins, but the person who works hard at only what matters and does it consistently. Many of those who fail in life do enough work to succeed; but they dilute their power. With focused intent, the kindling of their futures would catch fire.
Many honest people work very, very hard. But not many attain a life they would call successful. Focus your hard work to a specific end.
Looking for the next big thing as a hack to save time in the pursuit of a goal is the quickest way to find failure. The next big thing only works if you have laid a foundation in that area and are ready to seize the day by already being an expert.
Focus on what you want to attain and work doggedly towards it. There is no other way.
Focus And Concentration Mixed With Persistence Are Key For Advancement
The man who knows one thing, and can do it better than anybody else, even if it only be the art of doing a pistol squat, will find an audience. Helping others with this skill by concentrating all their energy to that end is helpful, and word spreads.
A divided purpose shatters your personal power. You need every bit of it to set yourself above the competition. I hesitate to set even 5 personal goals. I only do this because the physical goals all somewhat overlap in the actions required due to the interconnected nature of the muscular system and my workout programs exercise selection.
Outside of strength training, I set my goal list at 1 bull’s eye item. I am only concerned with the habits it requires. Not the goal itself.
No one can pursue a worthy object steadily and persistently with all the powers of his mind, and yet make his life a failure. Why? Because constant pursuit brings its own intrinsic rewards. Regardless of outcome.
I don’t want to be a great person. I want to be a content person. To this end I have to constantly remind myself that I am the most happy and content when I am working on one overmastering idea, one unwavering aim of single and intense purpose at a time.
Lack of focus walks hand in hand with our modern life. If one personal development skill merits your interest in the upcoming years, focus and the ability to direct your attention would be it.
Commonplace humble habits like patient, daily, toiling, drudging attention build success.
Make A Plan But Then Do The Work
Forming plans and resolutions is a necessary step. We just have to make sure that we act on that plan instead of making plan after plan with nothing to show for it. Get some completion. Finish things and then move on. Even when something turns out to lose your interest, you will have learned how to complete.
When you find the right thing, you will execute with efficiency.
Put your whole being into one thing at a time. It is the unwavering pursuit of a single aim that wins.
This is not a point of specialist over generalist, especially when it comes to employment. You should apply yourself to one thing, learn it well and move on if the situation dictates. You may know many things well, but in order to learn those things well, still requires focus on one thing at a time.
Give It Time And Don’t Quit
On November 20 2021 I came to a startling realization after reading this quote by Brian Tracy.
“In all great successes we can trace the power of concentration, riveting every faculty upon one unwavering aim; perseverance in the pursuit of an undertaking in spite of every difficulty; and courage which enables one to bear up under all trials, disappointments, and temptations.”
It was when I read that quote that I realized that consistency, focus, concentration, habits, mastery, competence… are the paths to success in almost every area.
Reading this came just after I finished 60 days of daily targeted practice of stretching so I could squat again after injury. And where after 7 weeks of practicing the core fundamentals of pose running, I could jog again.
I dropped most of my other training to focus all my energy and time on this because regaining my mobility and quality of life was very important to me. And I by nature have very poor commitment, consistency and persistence to a single path.
I tend to chase shiny objects.
Generally, I have commitment to the goal, the outcome, but lack attention and perseverance on sticking to a single approach to attaining the goal. This was a handicap on my levels of achievement.
The man who scatters himself upon many objects soon loses his energy, and with his energy his enthusiasm.
Form a plan; have an outcome in mind; then work towards the bull’s eye, learn all you can about it, and you will be much more likely to succeed.
Wasting Focus On The Wrong Thing
Worried about committing to something, but unsure if it’s your thing? Don’t be. Hammer at it for a year, and if you decide that this isn’t actually what you wanted then ditch it. You’ll know after a year if you have a passion for it once you’ve whacked through the beginner weeds and get a little flow going.
Unsure if a certain path leads to the desired outcome? This has been huge for me. I now have a 60 day rule. If I apply a method for 60 days to a desired outcome, I should see tangible results towards the target. If not, I look elsewhere.
References And Further Reading About Focus And Concentration
[1] From a longitudinal study conducted with over 1,000 children in New Zealand by Terrie Moffitt and Avshalom Caspi, psychology and neuroscience professors at Duke University. The study tested children born in 1972 and 1973 regularly for eight years, measuring their ability to pay attention and to ignore distractions. Then, the researchers tracked those same children down at the age of 32 to see how well they fared in life. The ability to concentrate was the strongest predictor of success.
www.moffittcaspi.com
Self-control—the ability to regulate our attention, emotions and behaviors.