Title: The Archer, Stay Focused:: October 2008

Author: Administrator

Date: October 28, 2008 1:46:48 PM or Tue, 28 October 2008 13:46:48

Summary: If your attention is divided between the task at hand and the results, you are cutting your skills in half. Focus is a key to better results. When it comes time to deliver, stay focused on what’s important right now.

Body: 

The Archer

Tranxu, a Chinese sage had this to say many centuries ago: “When the archer shoots for no particular prize, he has all his skills; when she shoots to win a brass buckle, he is already nervous; when he shoots for a gold prize, he goes blind, sees two targets, and is out of his mind.”

Shooting for No Particular Prize

When the archer is just shooting he has complete access to his skills. His mind remains only on the act of shooting. Nothing more and nothing less is needed from him at this point. Staying focused on what he needs to do right now helps him achieve his result.



Notice what happens to the archer and you as the rewards change or consequences of a goal not realized increase. Now that the archer is shooting for a brass buckle, he thinks more of the goal and less of what he is doing to achieve the goal. Yet it’s the same target, the same bow and arrow.

Don’t divide your Attention

No matter how big or small the consequences are, what the goal looks like, or who happens to be around you, strive to remain focused on the task at hand. By focusing on the task you increase the odds of getting good results. Worrying about the result adds no value and only divides your attention. When you divide your attention you are less effective.

Attention is a Skill

Dividing your attention in critical moments between what you are doing and the goal decreases your skills. When you are just putting you make the shot more often than when you are golfing with clients or colleagues. You sing in tune at home but are a disaster at a Karaoke bar. You plan out your killer presentation the night before but fumble in front of them the next day. Like the archer, your skills did not change. You were less than effective because you were focused more on winning than on shooting.

Look at the times when you performed less than expected or experienced accidents and mistakes and you will notice that the culprit is often your lack of focus. Your skills did not simply vanish into thin air!

More attention: Better results

When it comes time to shoot, monitor your mind and constantly bring it back to this moment, this action, to what is happening now. You cannot possibly deal effectively with something that is merely imagined: the future. Nor can you deal effectively with what is actually happening right now if you do not have some power over the goings and comings of your own mind.

What about Goals?

You may be asking ‘You mean I should not think about my goals?’ Once you know your objectives stay focused on process. What are you doing right now to move toward the goal? In moments of relative quiet, when necessary, or when planning it is wise to focus on your goal.

Delivering the Goods

When it comes time to deliver, when you are ‘on’ in front of others, whether you are just shooting or going after the gold prize is secondary to your focus on just shooting. Presentations, customer interactions, sales meetings and other business situations are the times to drop your preoccupation with results and just shoot with a calm, steady mind. By just shooting, you win more often.

Controlling your Mind

In meditation classes I teach I’m often told by students that they have trouble focusing on one thing. Yet they have no trouble holding their mind to their mentally imagined negative future for extended periods of time with virtually no effort. How is it that they can do that but not hold their mind on the task at hand? Through the force of familiarity, our mind worries without our control. This is one of the reasons why learning how to control your own mind is vitally important.

More effective

Imagine how much more effective you could be if you knew what your mind was focused on and could direct it to whatever you wanted at will. This is the meaning of being in the moment. There is great benefit and personal gain from learning how to shoot; from reclaiming this power and using it.

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