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F OCUS

What can I learn from what I’m like when I’m most focused?

How can I increase my ability to concentrate?

How do I limit my distractions and calm my busy mind?

What’s the difference between someone performing at superhero levels and someone failing to ever discover their superpowers? In many cases, it’s a matter of focus. I’m sure you’ve had numerous times in your life when you’ve really locked in on a task. Maybe it was writing a report that mattered a great deal to you. Maybe it was having a session with a mentor you love. Maybe it was attacking a bowl of your favorite ice cream. How did you do with these tasks? In all likelihood, you crushed them, writing one of the best reports of your life, learning huge amounts from your mentor, and devouring that ice cream like it was the last dessert in the world. This happened because you were able to train your focus on the task at hand, get right on that task, and not let anything distract you from that task. So why do most of us have only so much ability to maintain focus? Simply, I think it’s because we were never taught to do so. Certainly, I don’t recall having a focus class when I was in elementary school.

Do you remember when you were a kid and you went outside on a sunny day with a magnifying glass? How cool was it to hover the glass over a leaf, see an intensely bright spot appear on the leaf, and then watch as the leaf started to smoke and burn? What you were able to do was focus a greater level of the sun’s intensity on that leaf. And where the bright spot appeared,
things were at their hottest. Interestingly, when we talk about someone being intelligent, we often call them “bright.” Going back to our magnifying glass analogy, maybe what we’re really saying isn’t that this person is much more intelligent than most other people; maybe that person is just more focused.
Focus allows us to train our brain power on a particular task to burn through that task. It’s amazing what we can accomplish when we’re focused. Conversely, when we’re less focused, we’re less likely to accomplish what we truly want to do because we’re just not as committed
—both emotionally and physically—to doing it. The primary enemy to focus is distraction.