Quotes About Focus

Ce que je reproche aux journaux, c'est de nous faire faire attention tous les jours à des choses insignifiantes tandis que nous lisons trois ou quatre fois dans notre vie les livres où il y a des choses essentielles.

It is as if the minds of people of action, and smart people are people of action (on a minuscule, microscopic scale, but still action), are so consumed by attention to what will be happening in an hour's time that they commit very little to memory.

It's how we spend our time here and now, that really matters. If you are fed up with the way you have come to interact with time, change it.

All our efforts must be directed towards an end, or we will act in vain. If it is not the right end, we will fail utterly.

Remind yourself that it is not the future or what has passed that afflicts you, but always the present.

Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in thought.

Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it.... Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.

People don't change that much. Don't waste time trying to put in what was left out. Try to draw out what was left in. That is hard enough.

Spend the most time with your best people. ... Talent is the multiplier. THe more energy and attention you invest in it, the greater the yield. The time you spend with your best is, quite simply, your most productive time. ... Persistence directed primarily toward your non-talents is self-destructive. ... You will reprimand yourself, berate yourself, and put yourself through all manner of contortions in an attempt to achieve the impossible.

We must form our minds by reading deep rather than wide.

Don't let your thoughts run away with you, don't start planning to bail out because you're worried about the future and how much you can take. Don't look ahead to the pain. Just get through the day,

The SEALs place a premium on brute strength, but there's an even bigger premium on speed. That's speed through the water, speed over the ground, and speed of thought. There's no prizes for gleaming a set of well-oiled muscles in Coronado. Bulk just makes you slow, especially in soft sand, and that's what we had to tackle every day of our lives, mile after mile.

and it might be only small things that separate guys who are very good from guys who are absolutely excellent, outstanding.

Give me a golf ball and I can hit that sucker a country mile. That's because golf is a game that requires practice, practice, and more practice.

All he could do was try to focus, to put his attention on the woman right in front of him and the angle of her shoulder that meant she was about to shift her bag. To the man about to speak to his friend. To the little girl who looked a lot like Kate—no, push that away, no time now to think about Kate—reaching up for her mother's hand. When

He seemed the kind of guy who ran through his whole life heading for something more important.

the trick to chess is to be paying more attention to what the other side is doing.

It was like a new kind of vision, seeing with eyes as keen as scalpel blades, that cut away desires and emotions and wishful thinking and left only what was fact.

Quod est ante pedes nemo spectat: coeli scrutantur plagas. (No one sees what is before his feet: we all gaze at the stars.)

There's nothing like drawing a thing to make you really see it.

Ignoring isn't the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.

Dear God, help me pay attention! Dear God, help me keep my mouth shut! Dear God, let me put myself out of the way! Dear God, let me be wholly present to this person, your child!

When I say "work" I only mean writing. Everything else is just odd jobs.

you'll learn the critical difference between the paralyzing restrictions of choice and the freeing concept of focus.