Quotes About Focus

Don't mistake activity for achievement. To produce results, tasks must be well organized and properly executed; otherwise, it's no different from children running around the playground—everybody is doing something, but nothing is being done; lots of activity, no achievement.

I wanted to win every single game I ever played in or coached. Absolutely. I wanted to win. But, I understood that ultimately the winning or losing may not be under my control. What was under my control was how I prepared myself and our team. I judged my success, my "winning," on that. It just made more sense.

there are no big things, only a logical accumulation of little things done at a very high standard of performance.

Competitiveness must be focused exclusively on the process of what you are doing rather than the result of that effort (the so-called winning or losing).

It's so easy to relax, to cut corners, to let down after you've reached your goal, and begin thinking you can just "turn it on" automatically, without proper preparation. It takes real character to keep working as hard or even harder once you're there.

John Wooden focused almost entirely on improvement in the present moment. He let the score—winning—take care of itself. Don't let yesterday take up too much of today.

You will find that success and attention to details, the smallest details, usually go hand in hand, in basketball and elsewhere in your life.

Set your standards high; namely, do the absolute best of which you are capable. Focus on running the race rather than winning it. Do those things necessary to bring forth your personal best and don't lose sleep worrying about the competition. Let the competition lose sleep worrying about you. Teach your organization to do the same.

I never dreamed about winning a national championship. What I was dreaming about was trying to produce the best basketball team we could be. My thoughts were directed toward preparation, our journey, not the results of the effort. That would simply have shifted my attention to the wrong area, hoping for something out of my control.

Be quick - but don't hurry.

DON'T MISTAKE ACTIVITY FOR ACHIEVEMENT

Remember That a Great Quarter in Basketball or Business Starts with a Great Minute.

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail . . . Never mistake activity for achievement . .

Long-Term Success Requires Short-Term Focus.

Don't think you can make up for it by working twice as hard tomorrow. If you have it within your power to work twice as hard, why aren't you doing it now?

Minor details—like pennies—add up. A good banker isn't careless with pennies; a good leader isn't sloppy about details.

You often find what you're looking for.

Success is having to worry about every damn thing in the world, except money.

For the last twenty minutes, having something to do, he had become himself again, had come to earth from that unsafe country of the brain

Concentration is a cornerstone of mindfulness practice. Your mindfulness will only be as robust as the capacity of your mind to be calm and stable. Without calmness, the mirror of mindfulness will have an agitated and choppy surface and will not be able to reflect things with any accuracy.

Discipline provides a constancy which is independent of what kind of day you had yesterday and what kind of day you anticipate today.

By repeatedly bringing your attention back to the breath each time it wanders off, concentration builds and deepens, much as muscles develop by repetitively lifting weights.

Simply put, mindfulness is moment-to-moment non-judgmental awareness.

We take care of the future best by taking care of the present now.