Posts Tagged ‘attention’

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Three Types of Focus

March 21, 2014

Can you maintain focus long enough to read a book in the Bible? A chapter? A story? Can you read a book?

Many people feel that a combination of today’s information deluge and our attachment to the instant gratification of smart phones with email, Facebook, Twitter, and so on are ruining us of our ability to sustain focus on a task.

This problem can affect relationships, career, and a living a good life.

My current reading is Daniel Goleman’s Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence. You may have heard of Goleman through a previous book, Emotional Intelligence. If you have not read that one, grab it today.

Focus can be described as placing one’s attention on one task/event. When you are at a reception and talking to someone, do you focus on them? Or on everything else? Or have an urge to pull out the old iPhone and check for texts?

Focus affects ability to study, pray, even worship.

Goleman says that leaders especially, and everyone eventually, need to cultivate three types of focus.

  • Inner–keeping you in touch with intuition, values, reflection, making better decisions
  • Other–building relationships with others, connecting with others, being aware of other people
  • Outer–lets us navigate in the greater world around us

As that Star Wars Sage, Yoda, says, “Your focus is your reality.”

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Finding Focus In a Busy World

March 18, 2014

Over the weekend, I compiled a list of topics for this blog. Yesterday morning during my quiet time, I pulled up the list an contemplated what I’d write about.

First on the list was “focus.” Then I scanned the remainder of the list. Then I went back to focus. But I couldn’t.

So, I didn’t write.

After my workout, I had a phone call. Lasted an hour. Then answered email and another call and it was lunch. Another call. A little preparation, and conference calls from 2 until 5. I had dinner alone at my favorite little Italian place (I’m not aware of any good Irish taverns in the area, so my Gannon ancestors were probably reprimanding me) scanning my news feeds.

A day totally without focus. Maybe it’s the full moon.

So much busy-ness. I guess I focused on each call, but there was no focus on Getting Things Done.

Remedies

  • Usually when I have trouble with focus, I get up and move. Often the movement is taking a brief walk through the neighborhood. A little fresh air and exercise is a great reset.
  • Another good thing is to pull up my Nozbe next action list. Check out what I should be working on and do the next action.
  • Or, return to the open document and decide to finish it. Read what I’ve done thus far and then just start typing. Just writing the next words draws me into the task.
  • Sometimes I look at a task that I’ve been putting off and consciously decide to start working on it. Two hours later (as in last Saturday), it’s done and I can check it off. A great feeling.
  • If I’m tired, I push back and just close my eyes and meditate for a few minutes. Then I return to the task refreshed.
  • A cup of Tazo Zen tea is a great refresher.

What works for you? A life without focus is a life lost.

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Expecting People to Change Before We Befriend Them

March 4, 2014

Do you expect people to change before you will associate with them? People often think that their husband/wife will change after marriage, but people in church often (usually?) say, “Change, and then you can join us.”

John (the disciple, apostle, writer of the Gospel) is an excellent writer. To call him “uneducated” is a slander. He just didn’t attend the “right school.” He packs so much into a story that we give it a disservice by reading it quickly.

The story about the man healed by the Pool of Bethesda that I discussed yesterday is such a story. The point of the story was to show that Jesus was the Son of God. The subpoint was that the Jewish religious establishment hated him and wanted to kill him.

Why such animosity? Because Jesus threatened their very way of life. He threatened their superiority. They had set themselves aside with the vocation of being good. The studied scriptures and laws all day and followed every law. They were good.

And, they said that if you’ll change and be good, then maybe you can be one of us.

Jesus said to people, follow me and then you’ll change.

Jesus told the man to get up, pick up his mat, go and sin no more.

Oops, that violated a law. It was the Sabbath. The Lord said, don’t work on the Sabbath. The lawyers had to define work. One of the many detailed what you could carry before it was considered work. This man violated that rule.

Do we react to people we meet in the way of the Pharisees? Instead of rejoicing, we look for reasons to disapprove. We tell people that if they become like us, then they can be our friends–maybe, instead of welcoming other people and leading them to a life in the Spirit.

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Misplaced Focus

February 25, 2014

The kids were fascinated. Their attention and focus was on the simple black push button on the display. There was no label at the button. Just a push button.

I volunteered for some community service yesterday serving as a guide and teacher for one of seven displays at the Shelby County Historical Museum. Each year, the Museum has a display that all the schools in the county bring their 5th graders to tour.

I serve as a volunteer for a sorority (go figure). My wife is the president of the local educators’ sorority, Delta Kappa Gamma. Finding volunteers is a sorority project. Guess who gets to help?

So, as I guided the students around the 3-part display explaining about how and why people came to North America in the 17th and 18th Centuries, I got to the third panel about the group who didn’t choose to come–African slaves. Facing them was a picture of children who would have been on a ship. And the button.

They noticed right away. “What’s that button?” I had 14 small groups. At least half of the groups had kids that were poised to hit the button. A couple got into a contest of hitting the button over each other. I had to put a stop to that. Several just came close and sort of leaned toward it. They didn’t hear a word I was saying.

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about observing my grandson and how he had trouble controlling his urges–specifically to annoy his sister.

It’s the same thing. But these kids were 11, not 6. Most could restrain their urges (except for a couple). They were growing up.

But their attention and focus were completely diverted from the lesson.

Ever go to church or a lecture and notice something about a person in front of you? Maybe the tag is out on the dress or sweater? Maybe they didn’t get their hair combed in the back? Something that captured your focus to the detriment of hearing the speaker?

Part of growing up is noticing that our focus is on the wrong thing and intentionally bringing it back to where it should be. We conquer the urges and focus where it matters.

Throughout Scriptures, writers and teachers remind people to put their focus first on God. Then good things happen to your soul.

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Release Hidden Tensions

February 7, 2014

Neighbors called the rescue squad. There was something unusually quiet about the apartment of the old woman. They entered, found her in distress, and took her to the hospital. She had one hand tightly clenched into a fist. They could not get her to release. Finally, a doctor in the emergency room pried open her hand. Inside was a quarter.

Henri Nouwen tells this story in the beginning of his book “With Open Hands.” It is an image that has stayed with me for many years. The image of someone desperately hanging on to something valuable. So incredibly tensed up. Hanging on.

Jesus told stories about people trying to hang on to things. And he taught about the futility of that. Today I’m told there is a TV series (maybe more than one) about “hoarders” who can’t bear to throw anything away.

I’d like to relate this to the mindfulness discussion I started with this week. And prayer–which is where Nouwen took the story.

Part of being mindful is to open up. Become open to the world around you. Become open to God. You cannot walk around and really be with people if you are tensed up with worry about things which are of no value to God and actually impede your relationship with God and people.

In Yoga, I put people into positions where they hold a pose designed to stretch and strengthen a  particular muscle or muscle group. Then I will suggest that they do a mental scan of their bodies at that time. If we are working the upper leg muscle (say in Warrior pose), we discover often that we are holding tension in our shoulders. We should not be holding tension there. We should only be working the leg muscle. We remind ourselves to relax.

While warming up, I will have the class in sitting position cross-legged on the mat. We sit erect, stretch our arms out straight, then bring the palms of the hands together in front. Breathing deeply, we bring our arms back until we are pinching the shoulder blades together. We put the thought in our minds that we are opening ourselves up to greet the day. Then we bring our arms forward on the exhale and put the thought in our minds that we are releasing all the tensions of the day. Repeat about 4-6 times.

We have our minds and bodies intentionally working together alert to the moment–and only the moment. Now we can pray.

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Give the Gift of Your Attention

February 4, 2014

Give whatever you are doing and whomever you are talking with the gift of your attention. Jim Rohn

My thoughts on mindfulness resonated with many yesterday. There are three words, or concepts, that play well together–attention, focus, and mindfulness.

In my youth, I loved the murder mystery series by Earle Stanley Gardner about the legendary attorney, Perry Mason. There was a comment Gardner made about Mason’s personality that stuck. “He had such great power of concentration that he could move from the murder case he was on to complete concentrate on another case.”

Our current age is marked by “multi-tasking.” That’s a term borrowed from microprocessor hardware developement. Chips can be so designed that they partition off parts and can therefore support many tasks running simultaneously. Humans think they can do the same thing. (Actually, the chips usually use “time slicing” where moving at an extremely rapid speed, they work on each task a little at a time and it only appears to the much slower humans that the tasks are accomplished simultaneously.)

Humans cannot multi-task. Period. Humans can try time-slicing. Doesn’t work well.

When you are at a task, give it the gift of your attention. When you are in conversation with someone, give that person the gift of your attention (ouch, my weakness at times).

There is a mindfulness diet. It’s not what you eat (but please make good choices). It’s how you eat. What was the taste of the last thing you ate? The texture? Are you like so many humans who eat so quickly that the flavors and textures are lost in the speed of eating?

In the mindfulness diet, take a bite of food. Stop your hand and arm motion. Chew the food with attention. Notice the flavors, aromas, textures. Enjoy it. Then, and only then, take the next bite. By slowing down and becoming aware of the food, we actually eat less. For most of the people in the world, that’s a good thing.

Don’t fall into a trap thinking this is only a Buddhist or New Age concept. If you carefully read the stories about Jesus, not for what he said, but to gain a sense of how he acted and related. He had marvelous powers of concentration and focus. Remember him being startled by the woman who touched him seeking healing? He was concentrating elsewhere when he felt energy leaving him.

Thank you for your attention 😉

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A Little Mindfulness Every Day

February 3, 2014

It is better to master your attention than to have a to-do list.

I try to practice the discipline of Getting Things Done (book by that name by David Allen). The practice is to write down everything on your mind so that it is free to concentrate on the task at hand. You write down ideas about tasks you need to do, projects to be completed, what you’d like to do this day/month/year. Then your mind is empty and you can turn your attention to the immediate task that needs to be done.

Being digital, I use an application called Nozbe (affiliate link) to keep track of and organize my list.

Michael Sliwinski created Nozbe and then started “Productive! Magazine” to write more about practices for Getting Things Done. You can download the magazine to your tablet via the App Store. In a recent issue, Augusto Pinaud discusses the importance of where you place your attention.

Do you focus your attention on the task at hand? Or does your attention drift? In her book “Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes,” Maria Konnikova begins with a discussion of the ability to be mindful–the ability to focus attention. Holmes was observant of the smallest detail because he was mindful–his attention was focused in the present and on what he was seeing.

I believe Jesus exhibited the same characteristic. He took time alone to be with God. When he was with people his attention was focused on people–so much so that he could see right through to their needs and motivations.

There are health benefits to slowing down for 15 minutes or so every day. Just practicing mindfulness, placing attention on the breath or a phrase or a single thought. The spiritual benefits are greater if you place your attention on spiritual things–a story from the Bible, for example.

I thought I’d start off the week suggesting we organize our week around mindfulness, attention, focusing on the right things. I do this to remind myself as much as to teach others.

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Pray With Intention

January 3, 2014

Eoin commented yesterday about faith being a gift. A valuable comment, thanks Eoin. James (in the letter bearing his name) talks about all the good and perfect gifts that come from God.

Prayer is another of those gifts. James also talks about when you pray, to pray with certainty. Pray with intention. Don’t pray with leaving God an “out” and revealing your ambivalence. James calls that “double-minded”.

I totally changed my life last year–and it was all through prayer. I look back and contemplated how suddenly busy I became the last half of the year. It came through praying with intention. Praying for a ministry. Praying for people to come into my life. Praying for some new creativity.

And it all came to pass.

And this year, there are new prayers. Prayer for the focus and energy to accomplish the tasks set out before me. Prayer to have an impact.

Are you all praying for something for this year? It’s not like a New Year’s Resolution that is stated and then forgotten. When you pray with intention, something will happen. It may surprise you–God always seems to come from a different place than we expect.

But trust me; no, trust James; actually no, trust Jesus. They also both said to pray directly and with intention that God the Father will do for His children what is right.

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Set Your Path For the New Year

January 2, 2014

New Year’s Day coming on Wednesday really screws up a week. Normally there are several days strung together where I do year-end analysis (of myself and my businesses), prepare for tax season, and think about my direction for the new year.

This year, I worked on Monday and most of Tuesday. Here it is Thursday morning, and I’m going to spend most of the day on normal work.

I just read Andy Stanley’s book, “The Principle of the Path,” and my small group is studying the letter of James. As I contemplated these this morning, I found some parallels as I often do.

The principle of the path, to unjustly summarize, basically builds from the idea that you do something (consciously or re-actively chosen) and that starts you down a path of life. It may guide future decisions.

James follows a lineage of thought that is sort of, “to be is to do.” That is, the word “faith” does not mean a principle to which I agree with in my head (logically) or feel is write in my heart (emotionally). Faith is more of an action verb than it is a noun.

Back in my days of singing folk songs and campfire songs with my beat-up classical guitar, there was a song we sang called “Love is Something You Do.” Same idea.

Jon Swanson asked his readers for goals or words for the year. I don’t really choose goals in the usual sense or have a theme word for the year. But thinking about his question, I decided this year should be one of focus and energy. I got too diverted into too many things in 2013 and my energy sapped at times.

But as a disciple of Jesus, I feel more like it’s a “put one foot in front of the other” sort of thing. Where faith is choosing the path and assuring that each decision and action continue me on the path this year. Living consciously and intentionally.

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Your End-of-Year Spiritual Review

December 31, 2013

We are always in need of the discipline of pause and reflect.

Each week, best on Sunday evening, it is good to check your next action and review notes and compile a to-do list of the most important things you need to do during the week.

Each month, pause and reflect on the previous month. Did I accomplish the things I needed to get done? What were the distractions? What do I need to focus on this month to move me toward my goals?

Each year, take at least a full day and pause and reflect on the preceding year and the next year. What was the state of my spiritual health over the past year? Was I diligent in my Spiritual practices? Prayer, meditation, study, service, worship, teaching? Was I the kind of person that I want to be?

What things did I habitually do that helped me grow? What things did I habitually do that hindered my growth?

Aristotle, writing in the Nicomachean Ethics, said, “Some thinkers hold that it is by nature that people become good, others that it is by habit, and others that it is by instruction.” He thought habits were the thing. “The behaviors that occur unthinkingly are the evidence of our truest selves.”

“However, to modify a habit, you must decide to chant it. You must consciously accept the hard work of identifying the cues and rewards that drive the habits’ routines, and find alternatives,” wrote Charles Duhigg in “The Power of Habit: Why we do what we do in Life and Business.”

This is a good day to pause and reflect. I have done this “religiously” for more than 30 years. Some years it’s only smaller things that come to mind. Some, like last year, precipitated major life changes.

For today, look at yourself as an objective observer would. What did I do habitually that was detrimental to my becoming the kind of person I want to be? The first step of change is to decide to do this work of identifying them.

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