Read This If You Need To Focus

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

When I was a kid, I was lucky enough to have a dad who could teach me some core, basic life lessons.

I learned to quick-touch a soccer ball between my feet, dribble a basketball, and swing a bat.

But Chris, these are all sports moves, not life lessons.

You're right, and this is what I thought for a long time, too.

I remember swinging the bat, looking to the imaginary outfield, waiting to feel the connection with the ball.

Whiff.

I would hit nothing but air.

Then another pitch would come and I would look again, into the imaginary bleachers of imaginary screaming fans, brace for a huge impact, and . . .

Whiff.

Nothing.

Then my dad would deliver the lesson.

"Keep your eye on the ball."

What? Eye on the ball? How will that have anything to do with my success?

It didn't matter. He was my dad and knew everything.

The next pitch was coming and I stared at the ball.

Nothing mattered but that small, white ball.

WHACK.

It was gone.

It happened so fast that I barely caught a glimpse of the ball hurling over the neighbor's fence.

My dad smiled. That was an easy one.

Here's the core, transferrable lesson that I didn't realize I was learning:

When you're shooting for the stars, it's easy to get caught up in the glamour of the crowd or the magnificence of the feat. It's easy to forget the difficult steps of what you will actually need to take to get there.

You can look at the bleachers when you step up to the plate, but when it's time to swing, you had better keep your focus on the task at hand.

If you don't, you'll "whiff" every time.

And what's worse? You'll never learn to hit a slow, underhand pitch!

It's that first step that will get you the muscle memory and focus needed to hit a fastball later in life.

2 Minute Action

Take 1 minute and think about your long term goal "the bleachers." You can even write this goal down right now.

Then take the next minute and create your short term goal, "hitting the ball."

Keep in mind here that the trick is to think long term and act short term.

Just Put Your Shorts On

There are some strange things that happen when you try to change yourself.

 

And I'm not talking about the slow rate of progress or the big payoff--I'm talking about the disappointments, the injuries, then setbacks and the feelings of pain, uncertainty, and frustration.

 

Of course, you may have noticed that I haven't posted or written any content in about 4 or 5 weeks. It's not because I was taking an intentional rest or a deliberate retreat.

 

I fell off the horse.

 

I just stopped writing.

 

But that doesn't matter.

 

You know what I'm going to say next, right? It's not the incremental success that actually improves us. It's the ability to get back in the saddle with confidence that you are who you say you are.

 

It's the relentless mindset that makes us travel in the direction of our dreams.

 

We often over estimate what we can accomplish in a year, but massively underestimate what we can accomplish in ten years. In the end, it's the decadal time-scale that really matters--not the fact that we fell off the horse a few times.

Yet, this is often the reason we quit.

 

It's just so easy to forget about the long-game because days will always seem longer than years when we're in the middle of a workout, a breakup, or a career setback.

 

Having a relentless mindset means zooming out, looking at the big picture, and jumping back in the game anyway. Having a relentless mindset means accepting the embarrassment of falling down in front of others and getting back up anyway. Having a relentless mindset doesn't mean we're immune to pain, frustration or self-doublt, it means we're committed to the process of moving forward despite these adversities.

 

2 MINUTE ACTION:

 

What's something you quit or stopped doing recently? Writing? Learning a new language? Practicing an instrument?

 

What's something you can do in 2 minutes to get you back in the game?

 

How about writing a 5 sentence blog post? How about listening to a song or podcast in another language? How about picking up the guitar or sitting down at the piano and playing along with 1 song on the radio?

 

The funny thing about resilience is that the action itself isn't the hard part. It's not running or lifting weights at the gym that's hard--it's putting your shorts on.

 

I bet, once you put your shorts on and get back in the game, you'll surprise yourself how quickly you'll pick up where you left off.