Olympic gold medalist, Lanny Bassham, tells the great story about a professional golfer he was training. Interestingly, Basham is not a professional golfer. He didn’t work with this golfer on improving his swing. Instead, Bassham’s expertise is in mental training. He works with athletes on the mental aspect of their performance. Bassham told his student and professional golfer, Ben Crane, to focus solely on a proper and relaxed swing on each hole, not on winning the tournament.
In a big tournament at San Diego’s Torrey Pines golf course, Crane found himself only 30 inches from the cup on the 18th hole. Bassham finishes the story: “The crowd knew Ben needed to make the putt for the win, but Crane had no idea. When the ball rolled in, his playing partner offered his hand in congratulations. Thinking this was just the customary handshake after the round, Ben shook his hand and did not realize he had won until [Ben’s wife] ran out to the green… ‘Did I win?’ Crane said. This is proof that a player can cause his mind to think about the process instead of the outcome even with the possibility of winning pulling at him.”
If you want to win, don’t focus on winning the match. Instead, get fully focused on the task at hand. Focus is central to every kind of success – work, health, and even our relationships as it allows us to be fully present with our loved ones. Our ability to concentrate is linked to our ability to learn, memorize, achieve goals, and ignore what is irrelevant.
Focus on the wrong things, such as winning a game or trial, and you will actually harm your chances for such a result. Instead, focus on the immediately task at hand. Focus on what is right in front of you. The current play in a football game. The closing argument in trial. The sales presentation at work.
Focus involves what we pay attention to. It’s synonymous with attention and concentration. “If there is one ‘secret’ to effectiveness, it is concentration,” says Peter Drucker. We place our focus, our attention, our concentration on what is most important at the present moment. Focus on accomplishing the task before you to the exclusion of all else. Give your full attention to the one vital thing in front of you right now.
This focus gives you a concentrated power. An activated energy. If you really want to get something great accomplished in your life, you will need to turn up the heat. We boil water at 212 degrees. We have a mind that is one-pointed.
For example, if you are a lawyer, imagine if you could draft a motion with complete focus and no distraction. How much faster would you be able to draft the motion? Or in your relationships, imagine being able to give your full and undivided attention to being with your kids, spouse, friends. How much more effective would you be in that relationship?
The opposite of focus is being distracted and inattentive. It’s when someone is talking with you, but your mind is elsewhere. It’s when you’re at the gym but really thinking about work. It’s when your sort of, kind of, doing your work but constantly checking your phone for texts, sports scores, or social media. It’s when you are only half-hearted about what you are doing.
So, if you want to win, don’t focus on winning. Rather focus on what you are doing at the present moment, and do it with all your effort and focus, and that will give you the best possible chance for a great outcome.
On a hot summer day, you can take a magnifying class and put a piece of paper under it, and in a matter of minutes, start a fire. The magnifying glass focuses the sun’s heat, thereby creating the fire. However, if you are constantly being distracted and removing the magnifying glass every minute, you will never create enough heat to start a fire. It takes focused, sustained heat to create a fire.
We previously discussed that Cal Newport’s equation on Deep Work is a function of two variables: (1) the amount of our time spent, and (2) our intensity. The second variable — intensity – is all about focus; it is our concentration of power. The more we focus and place our concentration on a singular project, the greater our intensity.
Practically speaking, focus and concentration can be developed like a muscle. Practice doing focused deep work for some specific period of time, without any distractions. For example, read, study, write, or work on a project for 15 minutes, distraction free. If you can do that, try stretching it by another five minutes. Slowly and gradually, you will build up more mental stamina and greater concentration. In time, you will be focusing for periods of 30 minutes or longer.
This brings us back to Bassham’s golf story. We want to be 100% focused on the process, not on the outcome. We are all in on what we are doing, but at the same time, we want to remain unattached to results. Remember what we can and can’t control. The golfer, Ben Crane, could only control his swing; he couldn’t ultimately control whether he won the tournament. One of the great secrets of living a happy life is that we can strive for success and still maintain a sense of peace and calm by becoming detached from the outcome. Our ego often makes it difficult to let go of outcomes. But the ego also results in negative emotions and unhappiness, which hinders focus and performance.
Instead, let’s put a magnifying glass to whatever is most important now and watch how your life improves. Focus fully on the task at hand. I would be willing to say that focus is so important that you can’t flourish without it. Indeed, focus is at the very heart of all that we do.