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Concentration and Focus

"The first law of success is CONCENTRATION. FOCUSING all energies to one point. Go directly to that point. Do not move to the left or the right."

"Concentration, in its truest, unadulterated form, means the ability to focus the mind on one single solitary thing." - Komar

"Multi-tasking." Raise your hand if you have NEVER heard that term before? It's quite a popular buzz-phrase these days. Everyone uses it. And, there's a reason why--with such high demands placed on productivity we're all trying to do many things at once. But are we really accomplishing more?

"The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once."
- Samual Smiles

The fact remains, the fastest way to complete a project, and get it right the first time, is to do one thing at a time. Concentrate on one thing. Focus all your energy on one point. Through high levels of concentration and focus you will achieve more than you ever thought possible.

"There are mighty few people who think what they think they think."
 - Robert Henri

Leonardo da Vinci was an originator. He operated on all channels at very high levels. Sometimes I wonder if it may have been easier, in his time, to concentrate without distractions like--TV, radio, iPODS and the Internet--or, if Leonardo experienced comparative or relative distractions and he just developed the ability to CONCENTRATE AND FOCUS--ignoring everything around him.

Perhaps it was that Da Vinci learned how to avoid distractions. Maybe his passions were stronger than the distractions. What I mean is, maybe he found he loved what he was doing so much that his projects became more important than anything else.

However you look at it, Leonardo da Vinci remains one of the greatest thinkers in the history of the world. We have confirmed this by examining the immense volume of artwork, sculpture, journals, inventions and ideas he left behind.

There are many distractions today, no wonder it's so easy to lose concentration and focus: Internet, chat rooms, instant messaging, text messaging, email ... forget about the fact that the recent Nielson ratings revealed the average American watches up to 8 hours of TV every day!

A little known fact about airplane travel:

Airplanes, 90% of the time, are flying off-course. 90% of the time they are going the wrong way. Because of the ever changing wind direction and wind speed you cannot punch a course into the computer--which is how airplanes navigate these days--and expect it to remain stable. There are too many external variables involved.

It's the combined efforts of the airplane's on-board electronics and the pilots' constant focus, concentration, and attention to detail that keep the plane on track. Imagine if they failed to place emphasis on concentration and failed to monitor the direction of the plane. We would all be lost.

Try this exercise, it will improve your concentration.

The beauty of this exercise is you can do it anywhere.

Sit down. Pick up an item. You can do this at home, in a restaurant, in the school cafeteria--anywhere. Any item.

Look at the item. Note EVERYTHING about the item. Note the color, the size, the shape, the small imperfections, what's inside it (if it's a container) anything unusual about it?

Don't turn it around until you've given ample time to view the first side, then turn it around. Concentrate on this item for about 3-5 minutes. You will be surprised at what you come up with! Don't get distracted by anything else until you have spent about ten minutes with the item.

Try it. You will be amazed at how your power and level of concentration WILL improve.

"Everyone has his superstitions. One of mine has always been when I started to go anywhere, or to do anything,never to turn back or to stop until the thing intended was accomplished."
 -Ulysses Grant, 18th President of the United States