Find Your Focus
One Idea
In a marathon, the most obvious distinction between elite runners and average ones is an ability to maintain consistent pacing for the duration of a race. While elite runners gradually improve their splits (minutes per mile) over the course of 26 miles, average runners get slower.* According to distance coach Steve Magness, this is due in large part to ‘deep focus’ ability.
Source: Lutz.us
Deep attentional focus is an ability to keep concentration regardless of changing conditions. While average runners get distracted by physical, emotional, or environmental noise, elite runners only give attention to cues relevant to their goal.
Deep attentional focus asks two questions: ‘What matters?’ and ‘What can I control?’ Almost everything else is ignored.
What matters? There are a lot of things that matter in the world, but not everything is relevant to the immediate goal. Sure, midseason rankings are interesting–and they mean something to somebody–but they are irrelevant to the task at hand come gametime.
What can I control? Not everything that matters is something we can control. As a rule, we can never control: (1) other people**, (2) Mother Nature, & (3) where we started. Deep focus means we give attention only to those things that both matter and are within our control.
Two Quotes
“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” - Bruce Lee
“I don’t care how much power, brilliance or energy you have, if you don’t harness it and focus it on a specific target, and hold it there, you’re never going to accomplish as much as your ability warrants.” - Zig Ziglar
Three Takeaways
1. Not everything that matters is relevant. Irrelevant to winning Friday night: our win/loss record to this point, the over/under to the game, what the media is saying about our team right now. These things matter (to somebody), but unless they have immediate relevance to the goal, they should be disregarded for the time being.
2. Noise can be good or bad. Bad press and poor weather are obvious distractions NOT to focus on during a game. But, have you considered good press and favorable conditions? Getting caught up in the hype can be just as detrimental to performance and improvement. Be grateful for where we are, but continue to improve. Let’s focus and get faster as the race goes on.
3. We can always control our focus. To be sure, there are a lot of factors distinguishing elite runners from average ones–training, diet, talent, skill, and knowledge, etc. That said, any athlete can choose what to focus on. Be relentless in this regard. Focus only on (1) what matters to the task at hand and (2) what we can control. Finally, let’s hold our focus until the race of this season is over.
