11th Oct, 2023
Lack of focus is a common ailment in current times due to the large number of distractions available.
We all lack the power to concentrate on the subject at hand and our mind often wanders in different directions.
‘In Will Power & Self Discipline,’ Remez Sasson wrote that concentration is the ability to direct one’s attention following one’s will. Concentration means control of attention.
It is the ability to focus the mind on one subject, object, or thought, and at the same time exclude from the mind every other unrelated thought, ideas, feelings, and sensations.
That last part is the tricky part for most of us. To concentrate is to exclude, or not pay attention to, every other unrelated thought, idea, feeling, or sensation. To not pay attention to the numbers, beeps, and other indicators that we have a new message, a new update, a new “like,” a new follower.
I recently came across this short article by biographer Andrew Roberts about Napoleon’s “extraordinary capacity for compartmentalizing his mind.
For over a quarter of a century, Roberts has studied and written extensively about many titanic figures for other biographies, books on military commanders, books on the leaders of history-shaping events.
Roberts writes, “Napoleon was capable of ruthless control over what he wanted to think about at any one time.”
With the enormous demands on Napoleon’s mind, energy, and time, Napoleon was proud of his ability to sequentially process—always and only devoting his concentration to one thing at a time.
“Different subjects and different affairs are arranged in my head as in a cupboard,” he said. “When I wish to interrupt one train of thought, I shut that drawer and open another.
Do I wish to sleep? I simply close all the drawers, and there I am—asleep.”
On the night before what would be the bloodiest battle in history up to that point and for the next century, for instance, Napoleon shut that drawer and opened another: he spent the night dictating over a hundred rules for a girl’s school he was preparing to open in the outskirts of Paris.
Napoleon raised France to heights it’d yet seen thanks to his “capacity to compartmentalize his brain and focus entirely on each subject at a time of his own choosing.”
Improving focus and concentration takes time
Learning how to improve focus and concentration is not something you can achieve overnight. Professional athletes like golfers, sprinters, gymnasts take plenty of time to practice and usually have a coach so that they can concentrate and get the right move at the right moment to achieve excellence.
The first step to strengthen your concentration is to recognize how it is affecting your life. If you are struggling to meet commitments, constantly side-tracked by the unimportant, or not moving toward your aspirations, it is time to get help with concentration so that you can focus on what matters most to you.
Improve your concentration to succeed & stay blessed forever.