POWER OF FOCUS

"The powers of the mind are like the rays of the sun. When they are concentrated, they illumine." - Swami Vivekananda

When I was a child, I saw how a magnifying glass could burn a piece of paper, when the rays of the sun were focused through it on one point. The fire could only be ignited, when the sun's rays were concentrated on a small point. When the magnifying glass was moved too far away, or too close to the paper, the rays were not focused enough, and nothing happened.

This experience, describes vividly, how the power of concentration works. It is a skill, which enables you to fix your attention on one single thought or subject, while at the same time excluding from your awareness everything else.

"The power of concentration manifests as focused attention and as a one pointed mind."

When you focus your mind, you conserve your energies and do not dissipate them on irrelevant thoughts or activities. This is why, developing concentration is vital for anyone aspiring to be more efficient and take charge of his or her life. This skill is vital for every kind of success. Without it, your efforts get scattered, but with it, you can accomplish great things.

Concentration has many uses and benefits. It assists in studying, enables faster comprehension, improves the memory, helps in focusing on a task, job or goal, and therefore, achieving them more easily and efficiently. It is a powerful tool for the efficient use of creative visualization, and it also helps in developing psychic powers.

When this ability is strong, the mind obeys you more readily and does not engage in futile, negative thoughts or worries. This ability plays an important role in meditation, gaining mental mastery, and attaining peace of mind.

Without it, the mind just jumps restlessly from one thought to another, not allowing you to meditate properly.

Do you now realize why it is very important and worthwhile to develop and improve the ability to concentrate?

To develop this power you need to train and exercise it. Forget all your excuses about not having the time or being too busy. Do not say that the circumstances are not appropriate, or that you cannot find a quiet place to exercise. With a little planning, desire and motivation, you can always find the time to exercise each day, no matter how busy you are.

THE RESTLESS MIND

Thoughts claim our attention constantly, wasting our time and energy on unimportant and useless matters. They actually, rule our life. We have become so used to this condition that we regard it as natural.

While breathing, we do not need to pay attention to each inhalation and exhalation. We become conscious of the process of breathing, only when we have some difficulty with breathing, such as when our nose is clogged, due to a cold, or when we are in an unventilated room.

It is the same with thinking. We become conscious of the constant onslaught of our thoughts, and of our inability to calm them down, only when we need to concentrate, solve a problem or study. We are also acutely aware of them, when we have worries or fears.

Examine this familiar situation. You need to study something for your job or for an exam. You sit comfortably on the sofa with the book in your hands and start reading. After a while, you feel hungry and go to the kitchen to eat something.

You return to the book, but a few moments later you hear people talking outside. You listen to them for several moments and then bring your attention back to the book.

After a while, you feel restless and switch on the radio to listen to music. You continue reading a few moments, and then remember an incident that happened yesterday, and start thinking about it.

When you look at your watch, you are amazed to find out that one complete hour has passed, and you have hardly read anything.

This is what happens when one lacks concentration. Imagine what you could have accomplished, if you could control your attention and focus your mind!

A job that requires physical strength, such as carrying heavy loads, for example, strengthen the muscles. However, it is not the same as exercising daily in a gym. Reading and studying, exercise the mind, but to gain strong concentration, you need to practice exercises every day, just like training in a gym.

INNER RESISTANCE TO DEVELOPING CONCENTRATION

To develop this ability, you have to train your mind. Most people believe that concentration is a strenuous and tiring activity, and that it involves exertion and tension, which are difficult and unpleasant. This belief, which usually starts at an early age, is not true.

Parents and teachers expect children to study, do their homework and get good grades. Sometimes, they use disciplinary measures against the children. This makes the children feel forced to do something they don't like doing.

Telling a child often, that he or she is not concentrating well enough, creates a subconscious aversion to concentration and study. These become associated with coercion, lack of freedom, and doing something they do not like to do. When children grow up, it is no wonder that their power of concentration is too weak.

Though most people would admit that good concentration is a great asset, yet, most of them, do nothing to strengthen it, because they don't know how, and because they lack the motivation to do so.

Concentration can be fun, if approached in the right way. It should be practiced with joy, positive attitude, optimism, and understanding of its great possibilities.

HOW TO FOCUS YOUR MIND

Strengthen the power of your mind.

Tips, advice and simple exercises for improving your concentration and focusing your mind.

THE BENEFITS OF DEVELOPING THE POWER OF CONCENTRATION

There are many benefits to developing the power of concentration. Here are a few of them:

·         Control of your thoughts.

·         The ability to focus your mind.

·         Peace of mind.

·         Freedom from futile and annoying thoughts.

·         The ability to choose your thoughts.

·         Better memory.

·         Improved Self-confidence.

·         Inner strength.

·         Stronger Willpower.

·         Decisiveness.

·         The ability to study and comprehend more quickly.

·         Inner happiness.

·         More powerful and efficient use of creative visualization.

·         -Deeper and more successful meditation.

·         And much more...

Does this seem too good to be true? Develop the power of concentration and find out for yourself!

So what about starting to develop concentration power today?

THE POWER OF FOCUS

In today's world we seem to be forced to rush around in everything we do. For the majority of people, most days follow the same routine. It doesn't matter if you are a business owner, employee, stay at home mom, or a full time college student. The morning starts off with your feet hitting the floor running. Rush, rush, rush. The more you get done, the more it seems you have to do.

·         Are you tired of living this kind of life?

·         Why is it that the things in life that you really want to get done always seem to be the things that you never get close to?

THE ANSWER IS: FOCUS.

This one word, if acted upon correctly, could change your life dramatically.

FIRST, let's look at a simple example of how most people allow themselves to lose focus. Let's say that it is lunchtime and you want to read a book.

You go to a small café and order a nice sandwich. You sit down at your table with your lunch and the book, which you have been looking forward to reading all day.

You take a bite of your sandwich and open your book to begin reading. You have only read half a page when all of a sudden a very noisy group of people come into the café, which makes it very difficult for you to concentrate on your book.

After about 5 minutes, you are finally able to ignore the noisy group and get back to reading. You are on the next page when your mobile phone rings. It's one of your friends that you are supposed to be getting together with later that night. You chat to them for about 5 minutes.

Then you find where you left off reading when the waitress comes over and starts clearing off your table, which distracts you once again. A few minutes later, a family member rings you, and this conversation takes up another 5 minutes. Before you know it it's time to start heading back to work and you have only read a page and a half!

Now, this is a very simplistic example but I believe it shows the basic reasons why people don't accomplish the things they want to get done.

So how do you use the power of focus to get things done properly?

1.    SELECT A SPECIFIC TIME FRAME AND A LENGTH OF TIME.

Set the time that works best for you. This may be in the morning, lunchtime, or once all of your family has gone to sleep. Also pick a length of time. Thirty minutes, forty-five minutes, or an hour, whatever works best for you. By setting a specific time frame and a length of time, you make sure that this time is free from all distractions and that you don't cut into a time when you need to be doing something else.

2. SELECT A PLACE.

Make sure that the place you select is conducive to what you want to do. If you need a quiet place, don't go somewhere that has the potential of getting noisy. If you want to network, go someplace where you will be in contact with the right people. It is very easy to lose focus of what you are doing if you are not in the right setting.

3.    SELECT A PURPOSE.

If you don't have a purpose you will never get anything done. Select one or two things as your purpose. Remember, it's all about focus. Don't try to cram everything in all at once. If you want to get several things done, set up a different day for each one.

4.    DON'T GET DISTRACTED

This is the most important point. Don't set up a time that will prevent you from focusing. Don't choose a location that will prevent you from focusing. Don't try to do too many things at once, which will cause you to lose your focus.

If your phone rings, let it go to voice mail. As long people know you will call them back, most of them will not mind leaving you a message.

Turn off your T.V. Unless your purpose requires you to watch something, the T.V. will only distract you.

Make it known that you are not to be disturbed during this time. Children, co-workers, and family can be some of the biggest distractions. Don't let them ruin your focus.

As you begin to implement the power of focus, you will start to see yourself accomplishing more. Just imagine what one hour a day of focused self-improvement will do for you in a year's time.

How many novels could you read in a year? How much quality time with your kids will this allow you to have? How many more sales calls could you make?

The power of focus can change your life.

Do you know people who seem to be busy all the time but never seem to get anything done?

I run into them quite frequently as I work with management teams, and I can usually give you the reason in one word: FOCUS.

These people don’t have it.  For such a short word, focus packs real power.

Steam rising from a boiling pot is unfocused, and fades into the atmosphere. Steam surging through a turbine is focused: It will generate electricity and propel locomotives.

Light from an ordinary flame is unfocused and flickers impotently. A laser beam is highly focused light, and it will cut steel.

These two illustrations make a powerful point: If you aren’t focused and if your business isn’t focused, your efforts are going to diffuse into nothing. To make a difference, you have to become focused.

Unfocused executives look at potential customers and say “Whatever they need, we can do.” They don’t pick their opportunities, but follow every road that opens up. They see their companies absorbing massive amounts of capital and human energy without increasing productivity or building up appreciable equity.

They may be fairly successful, but they wonder whether they’re living up to their full potential. They frequently wish they were doing something else, and promise themselves that someday it will be different.

They stay busy most of the time doing things that seem urgent, but at the end of the day they feel as though they’ve accomplished little. They find it hard to explain to others — clearly, concisely and persuasively — exactly what they and their companies do.

They may have good products or services, but they haven’t found ways to turn them into integrated systems that can bring large contracts or bigger deals. If you see yourself in two or more of those descriptions, your lack of focus may be costing you a great deal personally, professionally and financially.

We all need to achieve focus in a number of areas of our lives. Here are some of those areas:

PERSONAL IDENTITY

Who are you as a person? Take a few moments and write an answer to that question in 25 words or less. Don’t use your name, address, profession, age, gender, educational credentials, marital or family status, possessions, religious affiliation or nationality.

These questions can help you focus your personal identity:
1. What do you value most? 

2.    What one thing do you worry about most? 

3.    What one thing do you talk about most? 

4.    Which of your talents have you developed most fully and relied on most often? 

5.    What kind of challenge do you find most appealing? 

6.    What one thing have you done in your life that you have been most proud of? 

7.    What one thing have you done in your life that you would most like to do differently? 

8.    What are three important ingredients of your personal identity?

PROFESSIONAL PURPOSE

The most critical ingredient to success in any venture is a clear picture of what you are trying to achieve. Describe, in 12 words or less, exactly what you do.

These questions can help you focus your professional purpose:
1. What is the guiding or controlling idea in your life? 

2. What is your strategy for implementing that idea? 

3. How would your staff describe your professional purpose? 

4. What are your three greatest strengths and what are you doing to capitalize on them?

YOUR CAREER VISION 

Do you see yourself as an entrepreneur, pursuing success through intelligent risk-taking? Or do you see yourself as a worker, willing to accept a ceiling on success in return for the security of a steady income?

These questions can help you focus on your career vision: 

1.    How does what you do all day square with the way you see yourself? How does it square with the way you want to be seen by your staff and associates? 

2.    Which roles do you most consistently play in your company? What is your most vital role? What are your secondary roles? What percentage of your time is spent on each? Which two of your present roles would you rather not be playing? Which roles would you rather be playing instead?

3.    What is your career mission and how will you know when you are accomplishing it?

YOUR MARKET 

My interest in banking has been enhanced over the last decade as a director of BB&T Financial Corporation, a thriving bank holding company with assets of $55 billion. I loved the recently published book, Productive Bankers, Profitable Banks, by my friend, Jan Myers. She compares banking to baseball. What she said about banking can also apply to other businesses: 

In baseball, the strike zone differs according to the height of the player. The player with long arms can go for pitches that are out of reach for smaller players.

But the smaller players can turn their small stature to an advantage. They can crouch low at the plate, making it hard for the pitcher to hit their strike zones. Banks (and other businesses) need to define their “strike zones.” They need to focus on the markets they are best suited to serve.

To focus your market, you need to determine your unique niche in the marketplace. Decide what you do better than anybody else does it.

Then determine who your customers are and what they need. Learn their perceptions of value — and of you. Remember, in today’s marketplace, it’s the customer, not the seller, who defines quality in a product or service.

YOUR PRODUCT

Once you really know your customers and their needs, you can offer products and services that capitalize on your differential advantage to meet those needs.  After you have achieved focus in these five areas, wonderful things start to happen.

For instance:

* You can constantly redirect your time, energy, talents, expertise and money from areas of low yield or no yield to areas of high yield.

* You can systematically develop your most productive strengths and compensate for your most costly weaknesses. 

* You can qualify the results you expect and measure your performance hourly, daily, weekly and annually. 

* You can identify obstacles and problems and attack them effectively. 

* You can identify the most productive ideas and go after the greatest opportunities. 

* You can communicate clearly and persuasively with people who can help you achieve your goals. 

* You can become competent enough at what you do to approach every opportunity with complete confidence.

* You can have a whole lot more fun at everything you do. 

When you’re in focus, your life takes on a new clarity. Just as a camera lens focuses light to form a photographic image, so your mind focuses your thoughts, feeling and actions to form a clear picture of who you are and where you’re going. 

When you’re focused, you’ll go far.