8.
Focus: The sharper it is, the
sharper you are
Maxwell
recounted Tony Gwynn’s habits in preparing himself before his baseball matches,
by re-reading Ted William’s The Science of Hitting, by watching countless hours
of videos of his games, and by hitting constantly. George Will was quoted in this chapter that
“people who are great at what they do have cultivated a kind of concentration
unknown to most people.” Maxwell listed
three tips to improve one’s focus: shift to strengths, staff one’s weaknesses
and create an edge. In closing this
chapter, Maxwell explained that animal trainers use a stool when they are in a
cage with lions as the lion loses focus when it tries to focus on all four legs
on the stool at once.
================================================================
Webster’s
definition
directed
attention
==================================================================
My thoughts
Leading
sportspersons are wonderful role models for focus, as Tony Gwynn was. It takes tremendous effort and focus, as
Maxwell recounted, for Gwynn to be where he became. Maxwell’s guidelines and tips on improving
focus are useful, but his last sentence in the chapter totally brings the
difficulty of achieving focus into sharp relief. “Divided focus always works against
you”. In the current climate where
multi-tasking is a given and expected of employees, being able to focus on one
task at a time must surely be a luxury that many are unable to afford. How do employees or even the CEO focus if
they are always fighting fires constantly?
Maybe that’s what their focus is?
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