A few days ago, a friend asked me something about focus. He was struggling with something in his life and asked if, as an athlete, I could offer any advice on how to focus – a book to read, an exercise to do, something to think about when his mind started to get off track.
I thought about it, and what it means as an athlete to focus and how I could relate this to his daily life.
As an athlete, I lose focus because I am not concentrating. I am not concentrating because I am distracted. I am distracted because I have started to pursue a goal I am either not passionate about or I am not confident about.
Now, relate this to you and your life. What are you distracted by? Are you doing something right now in life that you are not passionate about? Are you unsure of your ability to reach your goals?
Here is my case and point – I talked myself into a race at the end of June. It was not my favorite race distance and the last time I attempted the distance I completely choked (about 4 years ago). I didn’t really want to do the distance, I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. Well, that was pretty dumb because that’s not passion. You can’t prove your passion. You just have it. Anyways, though I had worked very hard this year, come race day I didn’t do as well as I could have. I wasn’t confident, I didn’t truly believe, I didn’t have passion for it. And honestly, I should have just stayed home. My head was all over the place, I couldn’t focus. And though I finished 6th, it wasn’t the top 3 I was really hoping for.
Extract this to your life. Are you really where you want to be? Are things going the way you’d like? Are you pursuing yourself as the person you want to be, the best version of yourself?
I wish I had an answer – as in, do these exercises or read this and you’ll find your focus again. But it’s deeper than that. At the end of the day it has to come from within, and listening to yourself, what’s within you, and figuring out what goals/tasks you are passionate about. Once you find that, the focus will follow.
The funny thing is that after I wrote it, I reread it and reassured for myself that the answer I was looking for in my life was to simply follow my own advice for life.
Sometimes we find ourselves so lost in the questions that we fail to recognize that the answer has been in us all along.
I guess I just needed to focus.
