Focus

What is focus? I looked up the word in various dictionaries and came up with the following definitions.

a primary purpose or interest, or a condition in which something can be apprehended or perceived, or maximum clarity or distinctness of an idea; or free from obscurity and easy to understand;

Focus is being in the zone or flow. Cambridge advanced learners dictionary defines being in the zone as being happy or excited as a result of doing something very skillfully and efficiently. The urban dictionary referred to it as an expression used to describe a state of consciousness where actual skills match the perceived performance requirements perfectly which allow for higher levels of performance. Athletes, musicians, and anybody that wholly owns a challenge of physical and mental performance can be in the zone. Flow, as introduced by Csikszentmihályi, refers,

“to a single-minded immersion and represents perhaps the ultimate experience in harnessing the emotions in the service of performing and learning. In flow, the emotions are not just contained and channeled, but positive, energised, and aligned with the task at hand. The hallmark of flow is a feeling of spontaneous joy, even rapture while performing a task, although flow is a deep focus on nothing but the activity – not even oneself or one's emotions”.

Focus in the practice

Every one of us has experienced a moment when we have engrossed ourselves in what we are doing that we don't even notice what is happening around us. We are present at that moment only and nothing else. It then begs the question, how can it be replicated over and over again? Yes, it can, when an individual's skills match the challenge. It has an association with achievement, satisfaction, and accomplishment. To replicate this state emphasis should be placed on finding activities that create a conducive environment to focus, and then identifying and developing personal characteristics to increase focus. The actions that are helpful to build focus are clear goals setting, provision of immediate feedback and achieving a balance between opportunity and capacity; the result is an increase in happiness and achievement.

From a spiritual perspective, focus is attained by an individual through mastering the duality of self and object to being one with things. One spiritual guru Echart Tollie posits that we fail in that endeavour because we are slaves of our thought that ramble all over the place and does not allow us to be. His advice is that we must raise our consciousness and tame the rambling of the mind. Consciousness is bringing awareness to our thoughts and emotions to the fore.

Challenges to staying focused

Some of the challenges to staying in focused include states of apathy, boredom, and anxiety. Apathy is when your skills level is above the challenges faced leading in demotivation. While, boredom, on the other hand, is a different reaction to a low-level problem in which an individual is looking for more challenging activities. When the challenges exceed an individual's skills level, it usually results in a state of anxiety. This knowledge is useful in how you respond to the aforementioned challenges.

Criticism

In as much as focus will result in attainment of many successes, too much emphasis on it will ultimately disrupt the work-life balance creating workaholics who are incapable of coping with the ambiguities of life. Nothing in life is absolute, and focus or flow should also be moderately managed to make our life experiences more purposeful and more vibrant and not allowed to take over completely

How to achieve focus

1. Self-motivation- perform tasks that you like as it has an inherent effect of arousing intrinsic motivation. However, sometimes you work demands that you perform activities you are not passionate about you now need to identify extrinsic motivation factors such as " this work is going to pay for my upcoming vacation in Victoria Falls."

2. Goal setting- a clearly defined route and a destination are easy to follow at and so as in life the process of goal setting will bring clarity on what needs doing where and when. A word of caution, goals must be matched to strengths or skills level to ensure continuous motivation and interest level and hence improved focus level. 

3. Use mental imagery to envision the desired outcome. Imagery prepares you to see how you’ll perform and allows you to relax by being focused on things within your control and that matter to you. Formula 1 drivers visualise the track before qualification - they feel the track inch by inch, corner by corner - when qualification begin they will have the single-minded of purpose- the pursuit of the perfect lap.

4. Stay relaxed- when one is feeling anxious or strained it will cause the focus level to drop. To overcome this relaxation exercise such as muscle stretching, breathing in and out and adjusting routines will release the strain or anxiety and raise the focus level.

5. Self-talk refers to the thoughts and words a person say to themselves; I suggest that you do that will facing yourself in the mirror. Proverbs 23:7 articulate it succinctly " as a man thinketh so is he." These self-talks will bring attention to a particular thing to improve focus. Most tennis players utilise this technique to bring focus to areas that need improvement in their game. The current number one player Novak Djokovic comes to mind.

6. Reflect on your focus levels frequently to gauge your progress or lack thereof as it will help you identify areas of success and failure and you will be able to maintain or adjust your focus levels.

Although focus can enrich our life experience, we mustn't let it entrap and enslave us by throwing caution to the wind. Let's, therefore, be informed by hindsight, of our past successes and failures, foresight, to know where we are going and be circumspect in the now to increase awareness of threats and opportunities around to deal with them accordingly. However, don't be lost in yesterday successes or be trapped by future possibilities so much that they forget to live in the present. Nurture and enjoy the pleasures of family and friendship for they are the one and true love that you can only have.