Quotes About Focus

when attention is not focused on a goal, the mind typically begins to be filled with disjointed and depressing thoughts.

Viktor Frankl, the Austrian psychologist, summarized it beautifully in the preface to his book Man's Search for Meaning: "Don't aim at success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue…as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to a course greater than oneself.

The problem arises when people are so fixated on what they want to achieve that they cease to derive pleasure from the present. When that happens, they forfeit their chance of contentment.

The normal condition of the mind is chaos. Only when involved in a goal-directed activity does it acquire order and positive moods.

The best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Optimal experience is thus something that we make happen.

concepto del flujo, el estado en el cual las personas se hallan tan involucradas en la actividad que nada más parece importarles;

Involvement is greatly facilitated by the ability to concentrate. People who suffer from attentional disorders, who cannot keep their minds from wandering, always feel left out of the flow of life.

without concentration, a complex activity breaks down into chaos.

Athletes know well that to improve performance beyond a certain point they must learn to discipline their minds.

It is a circuitous path that begins with achieving control over the contents of our consciousness.

By learning to concentrate, a person acquires control over psychic energy, the basic fuel upon which all thinking depends.

Yeah, there's a trick I pull for this. When I have a job to do like that, where you have to do something that takes a lot of effort, slowly, I pretend I'm in jail. Don't laugh. And if I'm in jail, time is of no consequence. In other words, if it takes a week to cut this, it'll take a week. What else have I got to do? I'm going to be here for twenty years. See? This is a kind of mental trick.

This does not mean that creative persons are hyperactive, always "on," constantly churning away. In fact, they often take rests and sleep a lot. The important thing is that the energy is under their own control—it is not controlled by the calendar, the clock, an external schedule. When necessary they can focus it like a laser beam; when it is not, they immediately start recharging their batteries.

If you are interested in something you will focus on it, and if you focus attention on anything, it is likely that you will become interested in it.

Many of the peculiarities attributed to creative persons are really just ways to protect the focus of concentration so that they may lose themselves in the creative process. Distractions interrupt flow, and it may take hours to recover the peace of mind one needs to get on with the work. The more ambitious the task, the longer it takes to lose oneself in it, and the easier it is to get distracted.

As one focuses on any segment of reality, a potentially infinite range of opportunities for action-physical, mental, or emotional-is revealed for our skills to engage with. There is never a good excuse for being bored.

The shape and content of life depend on how attention has been used.

To achieve creativity in an existing domain, there must be surplus attention available.

Flow tends to occur when a person's skills are fully involved in overcoming a challenge that is just about manageable.

If you are interested in something you will focus on it, and if you focus attention on anything, you will become interested in it.

When attention is focused, minor aches and pains have no chance to register in consciousness.

Control of consciousness determines the quality of life.

If you are interested in something, you will focus on it, and if you focus attention on anything, it is likely that you will become interested in it. Many of the things we find interesting are not so by nature, but because we took the trouble of paying attention to them.

It is better to look suffering straight in the eye, acknowledge and respect it's presence, and then get busy as soon as possible focusing on things we choose to focus on.