Stanley F. Bronstein – Personal Development BlogPersonal Development Blog of the Founder of the Achievement IQ Movement and Creator of the Laws of Positioning

Meditation for Wednesday – December 23, 2009

The Ability To Focus On The Task At Hand Is The Key.

WHAT IS FOCUS?

Dictionary.com defines focus as:

• a central point, as of attraction, attention, or activity
• to concentrate
• center, heart, core, nucleus

Focusing is getting to the root of the matter.

FOCUSING IS AN ABILITY – IT IS A SKILL

Ability is the power or capacity to do or act.  Focusing is an ability.

It is a skill that we are probably not born with.  Instead, it is a skill we must cultivate in ourselves and in others.

FOCUSING CUTS THROUGH THE DISTRACTIONS

When one is focused, all distractions simply fall away.  They do not exist.  They are not noticed.

That’s what focusing is all about.

GETTING IN A STATE OF FLOW

In the now famous book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, written by Mihaly Csikszentmihaly, the author talks about a state of mindfulness where one is in a state of flow.  Everything just happens.  That state of mind is sometimes referred to as “being in the zone.”

In Flow, the author lists 8 characteristics of Flow activities.  They are:

• Knowing very clearly what you have to do to achieve your goal
• Getting constant feedback as to whether or not you are getting closer to the achievement of your goal
• Challenges of the activity are matched with the skills of the person engaged in the activity
• Feeling of Focus / Concentration on the Activity while one is engaged in it  – attention is NOT split
• Everyday problems and frustrations are removed from our attention while engaged in the activity
• The person engaged in the activity is on the “edge” where control over the activity is possible
• The person engaged in the activity loses a sense of “self-consciousness”. Defensiveness vanishes and the person is so involved that they don’t care what others think. The person engaged in the activity “transcends”
• Sense of time seems to be “transformed” while engaged in the activity. Time adapts itself to the experience.

YOUR THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

I’ve found that it’s much easier to focus at any given time; on any given day, IF WE KNOW WHAT WE WANT TO FOCUS ON.

So I ask you, what is the one most important thing to you right now?  That’s what you should focus on for the next 30 minutes.

If you will repeat that exercise 4 times a day, you will find yourself focusing for more than 2hours on one or more tasks that are important to you.  You’ll be amazed at how much you can get done in those 2 short hours.

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