Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence

Inner focus attunes us to our intuitions, guiding values, and better decisions. Other focus smooths our connections to the people in our lives. And outer focus lets us navigate in the larger world.

Whether we’re trying to hone a skill in sports or music, enhance our memory power, or listen better, the core elements of smart practice are the same: ideally, a potent combination of joy, smart tactics, and full focus.

At least three sub-varieties of attention, all aspects of the executive, are at play when we pit self-restraint against instant gratification. The first is the ability to voluntarily disengage our focus from an object of desire that powerfully grabs our attention. The second, resisting distraction, lets us keep our focus elsewhere—say, on fantasy play—rather than gravitating back to that juicy whatever. And the third allows us to keep our focus on a goal in the future, like the two marshmallows later. All that adds up to willpower.

“the sudden taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one of what seems several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought.”

When I notice that my mind has been somewhere else during a meeting, I wonder what opportunities I’ve been missing right here.”

Attention, from the Latin attendere, to reach toward, connects us with the world, shaping and defining our experience.

Self-awareness, particularly accuracy in decoding the internal cues of our body’s murmurs, holds the key. Our subtle physiological reactions reflect the sum total of our experience relevant to the decision at hand.

ring your mind back to its point of focus

We do well to unplug regularly; quiet time restores our focus and composure.

Noticing that our mind has wandered marks a shift in brain activity; the greater this meta-awareness, the weaker the mind wandering becomes