Focus and action- how to train yourself to be more focused?

Focus and action come hand to hand. But they are both equally important. If you can’t focus on what you’re doing, then you’ll probably mess it up and won’t even be able to efficiently do it. But at the same time, as long as you take action and the task is done, it is done. What matters is the end result. But you don’t have to choose one of the two, you can just choose both and even train yourself to become better at them. We’ll learn how to master the art of focusing and the art of action.

Suppressing unnecessary thoughts

Our minds are like systems that function without a stop and without a break. We can not always control what we think about. If I were to tell myself that I shouldn’t think about a cow, an image of a cow will certainly appear in my mind. The more I try to focus my mind away from the cow and try to suppress the thought, the harder it will become to do so and I’ll fail miserably. But then, is there no way to deal with unnecessary thoughts? Short answer, there is a way but not suppression. We call this, the art of distraction.

The art of distraction

Our mind is not trained in negative ways. If you try to not think of something, it will definitely think of it. Then, the art of distraction comes handy. The only way to get rid of one thought is to think of something else, an even stronger thought. So, to not think of a cow, you should think of something else(maybe a crow). That way, your mind is occupied and your previous thought will become less prominent and will eventually be gone. This is called the art of distraction.

This can be used to distract yourself from useless thoughts, and make yourself focus on important things. You just need to make the other thought more interesting. That can be done by adding visual images of your interest.

Separating emotions and actions

We can not control what we feel. We can only know why we feel it, and process the feelings. But it doesn’t mean that feelings and emotions decide what we can do. A person can be sad or in low motivation, but it doesn’t mean that he has lost the ability to do what needs to be done. Motivation certainly makes a task easier, but it is not something that is a must to function. If you feel sad, unmotivated and troubled, you can let yourself feel those emotions. But feeling them doesn’t mean acting on them. After feeling them, feeling all the thoughts that ask you to give up, you can still move the body to do what needs to be done. This maybe very hard but it certainly is not impossible.

Mastering Focus and Action

We can master focus and action by following a simple method. You separate your emotions and the things you need to do. This includes your tired and fatigued body too. In such conditions, it is hard to act but doable. Now, to master this, so that you could do it without much effort, you need to keep doing it until it becomes a habit or second nature. When you force yourself for the first time to focus on a task and act accordingly to complete the task, you’ll be distracted like a hundred times and might not even be able to complete your desired task. This counts as an experience. When you do it again, it will hardly make a difference. But when you do it 10 times, you will be able to see that you have made progress. And so on, not after too long, you’ll be able to do it easily, and overtime, you can master this skill.

Mastering anything requires repeating it over and over again. And to repeat something, you need to start it first.