Archive for the ‘focus’ Category

« Older Entries

Don’t Live A Half-Rep Life

November 12, 2025

Just as I’m exploring meditation more deeply through an app (The Way with Henry Shukman), I am exploring resistance training more deeply through another app (The Pump Club with Arnold Schwarzenegger and others).

It started with the most basic rule of all: every exercise, when done with a full range of motion, is a stretch and a flex. Don’t live a half-rep life. Be fully present. Go all the way in everything you do.   -Arnold

  • Be fully present when you bench press those weights.
  • Be fully present when you do your work.
  • Be fully present when you study, pray, or meditate.
  • Be fully present with those whom you serve.
  • Be fully present with those with whom you converse.

This is the first day of the rest of your life. Live it in the present.

[Aside: I’ve learned that my long-time meditation practice has not been out of the main stream, yet I learn to go more deeply. I’ve increased the size of my shoulders, biceps, thighs, calves, while losing much white adipose tissue in the trunk. Resistance training and nutrition and sleep. The not-so-magic formula. I am now sharper mentally as I study and think things through.]

Enter email address on the right and click follow to receive updates via email. I will never spam you. I’m not in that business! Thank you.

Posted in Attention, Awareness, focus | Leave a Comment »

Focus

August 7, 2025

Philosopher Arthur Shopenhauer observed, “If a large diamond is cut up into pieces, it immediately loses its value as a whole; or if an army is scattered or divided into small bodies, it loses all its power; and in the same way a great intellect has no more power than an ordinary one as soon as it is interrupted, disturbed, distracted, or diverted.”

When you pray, pray.

When you study, study.

When you meditate, meditate.

When you serve someone, serve them.

When you rest, rest.

Doing two things simultaneously accomplishes neither.

Posted in Attention, focus | Leave a Comment »

Hurry, Hurry, Hurry

August 4, 2025

My Uncle Doyle, mom’s younger brother, loved the comic strip Pogo by Walt Kelly. I remember his introducing me to it and reading it as a child. Kelly was a master at condensing a thought into something meaningful.

“Having lost sight of our objectives, we redoubled our efforts.” Pogo

Shall we pause and reflect?

Once I hurried through everything. Even before I learned the Navy SEAL mantra from the firing range—Slow is smooth; smooth is fast—I learned the value of slowing. Focusing on the task and slowing down actually helps me accomplish more. Leaving stress behind.

Perhaps it’s time to stop, look around, recall our objective, and try easy.

Posted in Attention, focus | Leave a Comment »

Focus

October 16, 2024

We need focus in a life filled with distractions.

I sat this morning with laptop on lap reading those words.

I noticed my coffee cup on the desk. Reached for it. Empty.

My gaze caught the Post-It note with a chord progression for a song I’m learning. My mind went through the song.

Oh, now I need to get up and visit the bathroom. Then make a cup of coffee. Now my wife is up. I am thinking about the process of preparing the patio for winter.

Returning to my office, what was I thinking about.

Oh, yes, focus.

We (I) need focus in a life filled with distractions.

Posted in focus | 1 Comment »

Stuck

August 22, 2024

Stuck

Clowns to the left of me

Jokers to the right

Here I am

Stuck in the middle with you.

I’ve heard that song by the Scottish group Stealers Wheel at least ten times the last week. Restaurant, coffee house, radio station at home. Someone is telling me something.

Sometimes we are stuck.

We can’t decide. This one or that? This way or that? A project that just doesn’t move. Writing that doesn’t start.

Robert Pirsig wrote in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance about being stuck. You are trying to disassemble a part. The screwdriver slips. The screw’s head is stripped. You’re stuck. You can’t proceed.

First you must recognize that the problem changed. Then tackle the new problem to get unstuck.

It’s like spiritual formation. First the realization. Then the focus and intention. Then the new work to overcome being stuck.

Posted in Disciplines, focus, Intention | Leave a Comment »

Focus for the Day

August 5, 2024

How can I love myself and the world more today?

Jesus knew—we must begin with our heart. What is the status? Where is it residing? Is it God or things he once asked.

How can I love myself more?

The orientation of our hearts settled into the right direction, then we are capable of looking outward.

How do we love others more?

Posted in focus, Love | Leave a Comment »

Slow Down, You Move Too Fast

May 13, 2024

You’ve got to make the morning last. (Apologies to Paul Simon from when he was feelin’ groovy)

My handwriting in cursive degenerates to a scrawl as I hasten to capture all the ideas tumbling through my mind.

Then I remember my engineering drawing classes where they taught “lettering.” Slow down. Form the letters. The idea train will slow down as if for entry to the station.

Sometimes I review notes being unable to read them. Not a good thing.

Slowing ourselves brings our awareness into the scene. We have time to think before writing or talking. We have time to notice the other. And only the other. Time to focus on the task. And only the task.

Posted in Awareness, focus, Wisdom | Leave a Comment »

When Today Is Done

January 22, 2024

When you begin a day, preferably with reading and meditation, where do expect the day to end? How will you spend the next precious 15 hours? Where will your focus and attention take you?

I hope that you don’t have a calendar filled with what to do every 15-minute time block of the day. That is stifling. It fails to allow for thinking and serendipity.

I do hope for you and for me that we place our attention on what good we can do as we travel through the day. That we are aware of what surrounds us and meets us such that we can show kindness and service.

And when we perform our evening Examen we can say that today we have done some good for the world.

Posted in Awareness, focus, Service | Leave a Comment »

Kind Hearts

December 27, 2023

Kind hearts are the garden,

kind thoughts are the roots,

kind words are the blossoms,

kind deeds are the fruits.

John Ruskin

We are approaching the end of a year and the beginning of a new one. Think not of New Year’s Resolutions or goals. Or even “I resolve to be a kinder person next year.” These never succeed.

No, rather, look at yourself. What sort of person are you? What sort of person would you like to be? Perhaps write in your journal or calendar (diary) a brief description of the person you would like to be. Here is a suggestion. Write, I will be the sort of person who

  • Cultivates a kind heart,
  • Redirects thoughts and feelings intentionally toward kindness,
  • Pauses before speaking then speaking with kindness,
  • Instinctively acts toward others with kindness.

At the conclusion of the year, people will say about me, “there went a kind person.”

Posted in Compassion, focus | 1 Comment »

If You’re Going To Do It, Do It

November 21, 2023

Arnold Schwarzenegger, body builder, actor, governor, has had a life-long mission of spreading fitness and health passion and information. He sent an email about establishing a “positive corner of the internet.” I signed up for his Pump Club newsletter and then got the Pump Club App. He and his co-editors deliver a wealth of health and fitness information within their positive “village.”

Recently he addressed a problem we probably all see—or even resemble. Doing things half-way. He sees people come to the gym only to sit on the weight machine bench staring at their smart phones. How can they be focused on accomplishing a great workout while distracted by many things?

He says, “If you give whatever you’re doing your all, you’ll never regret it. You’ll never look back in 20 years and say, ‘I wonder what might have happened if I tried harder.’ “

He uses a German phrase, Wenn schon, denn schon. “It basically means, if you’re going to do it, do it.”

The pastor or your boss asks you to lead a team to accomplish a mission. You can decide—do you focus and do it, or do you fit it in among many distractions and accomplish the minimum?

Do you say to yourself that tomorrow I’ll get up at 5:30 am, read something spiritually uplifting, meditate, workout at the gym, and be ready for a good day—while sitting on the couch watching TV and snacking at 11:30 pm?

Or, when you are going to do it, do it.

You can sign up for the newsletter and app at this link. To get the app, use the code ARNOLD.

Posted in focus, Physical | Leave a Comment »

« Older Entries