Posts Tagged ‘focus’

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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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Leaders Take Care of Themselves First

March 12, 2014

The Bible tells the stories of many interesting and powerful people. Daniel has long stood out as one that I admire as much as any. He was a leader in two empires. He had to be good to survive the conquest of the Babylonians by the Persians and be a top leader and advisor to the kings of both.

One of the first things we learn about Daniel is that already as a young man he was focused and grounded. When he and his friends were chosen for the management intern program under the king of Babylon, he refused the diet of the royal household. They chose to eat a simple diet, low in fats and alcohol.

I have a friend who, the last time I saw him, was on the “Daniel diet.” We know even today that a diet filled with fruits and vegetables is healthy. Reduce the amount of fats and “bad carbs” in your diet and you will feel much better.

An acquaintance told me this week that she is practicing the Blood Type Diet to lose weight. I was curious, so I Googled it. Many years ago, a book became popular in Japan that did personality type by blood type. I am B+. Supposedly that’s one of the best (according to the secretary of the president of the company I worked at then, who told me to tell Alex right away to get on his good side). I’m not going to follow that diet necessarily. but it had interesting stuff. I’m not to eat corn and wheat and also avoid chicken. Whew, that’s a good thing. I haven’t eaten poultry since a bad experience around 60 years ago.

Daniel also took time out to pray three times a day. Some people today practice taking an afternoon nap. But I find, like Daniel, that taking regular times out to meditate helps both energy and focus.

Speaking of focus, I don’t think the ancient writers used that term, but I have to believe that Daniel was one focused individual. As Qui-gon said to Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode I, “Remember, your focus determines your reality.”

When you choose to do something, give it the benefit of your focus. We cannot really multi-task, but we can practice like a microprocessor–time slicing. We can juggle many things, but we have to give focus to each in small bursts.

Focus, diet, quiet. Three keys to taking care of yourself.

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Be Intentional About What You Want

March 3, 2014

“Do you want to be well?”

Jesus asked the man with an unspecified illness at the edge of the Pool of Bethesda at the Temple that question.

We would expect the man to answer, “Yes! Of course! Please!”

Instead, the man whined and complained. “There’s no one around to help me into the water when it stirs and other people get there first.” (There was a superstition that when the water stirred in the pool an angel caused it and was there to heal the first person who dipped into it.)

Jesus evidently ignored the whining. He told the man to stand up, pick up his mat, and to go and sin no more and he would be well.

There is so much we don’t know. What was his sin that caused his illness? Indeed, what was his illness? Why did Jesus pick him? Why did Jesus ignore his whining and heal him?

None of this is the point of the story that John tells in his Gospel. But that’s OK. It’s worth contemplating.

How do we answer?

If someone walks up and offers help, what is our response? Thanks? Or some sort of whining excuse?

A guy I know uses the term “intentional” often. Pray intentionally for things, he’ll say. Pray intentionally for God to bring people into your life or bring the right circumstances into your life.

I thought about that word as I contemplated this story. Are we intentional about seeking healing? Are we intentional about seeking help for our challenges? Do we even know what we want?

Self-help gurus talk about goal setting. That can be a useful activity. However, being intentional about the kind of person we want to become or about healing us of our problems (physical, mental, emotional or spiritual) is really our first step toward 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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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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Treat Everyone Equally

January 13, 2014

When most of you read this post, I will be in the air on my way to Mexico to visit the Tijuana Christian Mission. I’m going with three members of our church’s pastoral staff partly so that I can rejuvenate our mission ministry.

One of my small groups is studying James right now. As always, what we study seems to have immediate application. Twice early in his letter, James teaches on respecting everyone. Everyone in the community is equal before God. We should not feel either inferior or superior. We should not treat others as superior or inferior.

That’s one of the things I admire about Pope Francis, by the way. In an organization that retains most of the medieval trappings of power and authority, he is trying to bring some other traditional Christian teachings into the church.

I have traveled internationally enough to intentionally try not to be the “typical American.” But often I’m at engineering conferences. This is a different trip. I’ll be the only engineer. James’ teachings will be at the front of my mind. Although (probably as an American) I seldom recognize personally superiority or inferiority, going on a mission trip with the poor and dispossessed will be different, for sure.

James teaches two things early in his letter–respect for others and awareness of our own motivations. Nowhere does this come out as much as during travel into other cultures. Should be an interesting time.

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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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I’m Doing a Great Work

December 30, 2013

I’m Doing a Great Work

“I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down.”

What is your great work for 2014? Can you see it in your mind?

Nehemiah saw a problem that troubled him greatly. His brother returned to Susa in Persia where Nehemiah was an official in the Emperor’s office with disturbing news about the state of affairs in Jerusalem–the ancient capital of his people.

He prayed and meditated on the problem for several months and came to focus on fixing one big thing–rebuilding the walls of the city. In those days, cities of any importance at all had walls. Jerusalem’s walls had been in shambles ever since the Babylonians had conquered the city some 100 years before.

One day while he was supervising the rebuilding of the walls, his enemies sent a message requesting a meeting in a village down on the plain. Nehemiah responded, “I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down.”

This year’s work

This is the time of the year for reflecting upon the past year and resolving to do better next year. I will adjust my schedule at the gym to allow for an influx of optimistic people next week. My Yoga class will double in size for the month of January.

People will make resolutions to lose weight, get fit, be healthier. But they won’t focus on the great work, and they’ll quit.

What is your great work for the coming year? Define it. Write it down and keep it in a place you’ll see daily. For in the coming time, every day you must make decisions–almost hourly–that will determine the outcome of your great work.

Do you need to have a better relationship? Deal with an alcohol or other addiction problem? End a toxic relationship? Start a new ministry? Define it, pray and meditate on it, ask God to bring people into your life that will help you.

My great work

Last year at this time, I heard Andy Stanley of North Point Ministries teach on this verse. I also read Henry Cloud’s book “Necessary Endings.” A friend had advised me to pray intentionally for God to bring people into my life.

Also last year I had been praying for God to open up some sort of ministry and to deal with a toxic relationship that I had found myself in. And to bring new people into my life.

It was an interesting year. I ended the toxic relationship, started a new business, accepted a request to re-start a ministry at church and started the process of turning around another business and to buy it.

My great work this year is to digest all that, achieve focus and purpose on each, and make them all successful. At the core, I pray to become a better communicator.

What’s yours? Are you stepping out in faith?

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Copy The Right Master

December 27, 2013

Yesterday, I wrote about human development. How we learn from copying the master and then incorporate those learnings into our lives so that we can then create within our own personality.

What about choosing the right masters to copy from? That is important for art, but even more so in spiritual development.

Jesus is such a hard model to follow. He was so perfect. He could do things that we’ll never do. On the other hand, he taught in the tradition of creating disciples. These are people who follow the master and try to emulate him. In certain Jewish religious circles even today you will see men wearing clothing of a certain style. This is the style of clothing that their master (teacher) wears.

What do we do to look like our teacher–Jesus? I am more and more convinced that the main point of the Bible story is to teach us how to live your lives. Jesus spends very little time talking about heaven. He spends almost all of his instruction time on how to live.

He’ll answer such things as how we treat other people, upon whom do we focus when faced with decisions (hint: God), how we manage our resources, how to teach, what to teach, how to bring healing to people.

People will say, “I believe.” Maybe they will even say, “I believe in my heart.” Jesus would say, “Fine, but what about that decision to spend money on another new TV rather than provide help to the homeless?” Or, “How about the way you treated the people you met today?”

It boils down to whether we focus on what God would have us do or whether we settled for satisfying our own pleasures or wants. It’s whether we model our lives on the way Jesus lived or on a rock star.

Choose your master consciously with discernment.

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Anticipation and Stress

December 10, 2013

Advent. Anticipation. Anxiety.

Were you ever about to do something, and then the thought hits “how did I ever get myself into this situation?”

Maybe it was when you were about to get into the car to attempt the world’s largest roller coaster? Or making a big speech in front of a large crowd? Or getting into your car in anticipation of a family Christmas gathering with weather coming in?

Often anticipation and anxiety go together. Maybe that is one reasons psychologists always talk about the weeks leading up to Christmas as one of the most stressful times of the year.

Maybe it’s not so much about celebrating Jesus’ coming into the world as much as all the family stuff, office parties, buying presents, sending cards, other gatherings, need to be cheerful, and so on. We certainly know how to stress ourselves at this time of year.

There are practices that humans have developed to counter these stresses. Mindfulness means paying attention to only the present moment–what’s around you, what your state is, your task at hand. Consciously regulating your breathing whether lying, seated or walking helps bring you into a conscious state of mind.

I don’t teach Yoga as a religion, but as a physical practice and for developing the state of mind of being in the present moment.

Another practice is one that Bill Hybels teaches at Willow Creek Community Church–15 minutes in your chair every morning reading the Bible and contemplating. Gets your day off to a more focused start.

Two more practices are complementary. One is to practice gratitude thanking God for all the things you are grateful for. The other is to practice forgiveness–forgiving others for perceived slights and recognizing your own need for forgiveness for the things you have done to others.

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