FocusPoint of Convergence

As ‘theemergingman’ I have been trying to apply to my life those things I am learning that help us to be a successful person, regardless of the specific endeavor you choose to participate in. Be that business, art, school, hobbies, sports, raising a family… whatever the activity is you choose.

In my research of successful habits and trying to apply them to my life I keep finding they all circle back to ‘mental fortitude’.

One of the ‘mental techniques’ that help that fortitude is one of FOCUS.

We all talk about it… and at some level we all have focus. But what separates someone in any field from another in that same field?

I have found there are two things really.

1. What goals those individuals have within that endeavor.
2. The FOCUS that it will take to attain those goals.

Life and business get a little muddled when trying to do an analogy and that’s why sports are an easier topic to use to make a point.

I like baseball. Name another sport where you are on offense… and DON’T get the ball?

One player I like is Jean Segura. In an interview he recalled his days in the Dominican Republic and his practice regiment of three hundred ground balls a day. If you want to develop soft hands for infield play that’s the way to do it.

If you like basketball… how many free throws are you taking?

And if your a kicker for the Bears… nah, to easy.

You get the idea. Practice , Practice, Practice… right?

To do that and to have it be a help you need to be focused on ground ball three hundred the same as you are on number one, number fifty-six and every other number.

Now we all know that it is hard to focus. On any topic. For any length of time. But that is what separates ‘the men from the boys’ as it were.

My new job is indoors and real noisy and it allows me an opportunity to concentrate on my ability to focus on my job. Let me tell you… my mind wanders! I never really knew how much until I started to assess it.

So if your brain is a muscle and you need to fortify your fortitude… what are the exercises we can do to improve? I have some real life/time experience now to go through and try to improve with what I’m learning. I found the info below that mirrors my experience.

focus (n.)

“In research at Emory University by Wendy Hasenkamp she imaged the brain of volunteers while they paid attention to their breath. They didn’t try to control their breathing in any way, but just concentrated on its natural flow.

She found there are four basic moves in the mind’s workout for focused attention:

1) Bring your focus to your breath. (mine: your natural breathing tempo)

2) Notice that your mind has wandered off. (mine: acknowledge your mind wandered)

3) Disengage from that train of thought. (mine: this requires an effort on our part)

4) Bring your focus back to your breath and hold it there. (mine: our breath is always there and we can use it as the focal point and as a ‘thought process interrupter”)

And the next time your mind wanders off and you notice that you’re thinking about, say, your lunch rather than your in breath, repeat that basic mental rep again. And again.

That’s the way to strengthen the brain’s circuitry, centered in the prefrontal cortex just behind the forehead, that both puts your attention where you want it to go, and brings it back when you wander off.

It takes mindfulness—an active attention to notice that your mind has drifted, and a mental effort to end that reverie and go back to the breath.”