Change Your Focus For Better Results

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In some of my workshops, I run a short activeness which provides the audience members with an immediate and practical example ofhow and where we focus our attention and energy – and the potential consequences. It's a pretty simple process used by enough of facilitators.

How it works:

I ask my audition to spend lx seconds looking around the room and to have note of everything that's blood-red. Any shade of cherry will practise. Blood-red. Fire-engine red. Burgundy. Maroon (are they the same?). If I'm feeling generous, I'll even permit hot pink. I then tell them to commit as many ruby-red things to memory as possible. I tell them not to over-think the procedure, not to endeavor to effigy out the point of the exercise (and thereby miss out on the do good), not to talk to anyone else, non to write anything down and to utilise any retentiveness or recollect method they feel will give them the all-time result. That is, optimal retention.

Turning Cogs

For sixty seconds there is total silence. An intense silence – if that'due south possible. I tin almost hear the cogs turning and the competitive juices flowing as each person scans the room frantically trying to absorb and retrieve as much (relevant) information as possible. Talk about focus – sometimes it's equally though they're looking into the face of a loved one for the last time.

At the end of the allocated time I ask the group to keep their optics closed. I so ask them a whole agglomeration of irrelevant and (seemingly) pointless questions for almost two minutes. At this stage, the quantity and quality of their responses (to my questions) is pretty underwhelming as (1) their optics are nevertheless closed and (2) they are desperately trying to retain the required information (the red stuff in the room) and to manipulate with my stupid and annoying questions without being likewise distracted from their mental list.

Only You Said….

Only when they're about to storm the phase and punch me in the head, I ask them if they're ready to share their memorised list with me. I place myself in front of a whiteboard with a marker in hand and say, "okay, keep your optics closed and give me a list of everything in this room that's… brown."

At this point, I can literally sense the frustration in the room.

"But you said red?"
"I know, but now I want the chocolate-brown listing – keep your eyes closed."
"That's not fair."
"Life's like that."

Over the course of a few minutes, with all optics still airtight, the grouping begins to shift its focus and to review the room (in their mind's heart) in a different way. Typically, nearly people will recall less than a quarter of the brown things in the room while being able to call up virtually i hundred percent of the ruby.

"But y'all all studied the room before yous closed your eyes", I tell them.
"Yeah, only we were looking for red, not brownish."

A New Perspective

After a few frustrating minutes, I allow them to open their eyes and to instantly see what they hadn't before: all things brown. It's astonishing what becomes apparent when we expect at the same thing (room, relationship, career, business concern, opportunity, person, health) with a totally different focus. What was one time invisible, becomes immediately apparent. Obvious even. When we shift our attending, we can observe gold. We find ourselves with a dissimilar level of consciousness and a new appreciation for, and awareness of, what has always been in that location. In some ways, it's like we're opening our eyes for the offset time.

This cursory action (looking for scarlet) is a simple, yet effective, one – we notice what we're searching for. When we have a narrow focus (which nosotros often do), nosotros don't see the entirety of what's in that location. The potential. The gifts. The joy. The fun. The good. The opportunity. When we look for bad, we'll discover it. When we look rejection, we'll observe that too. If we're constantly searching for issues, we'll never see the solutions.

Our focus becomes our reality and we air current up creating the very matter (situation, outcome) that we desperately want to avoid.

Sometimes we're and then obsessed with, and fearful of, the bad, we miss out on the considerable skilful in our world. Sometimes nosotros're so preoccupied with finding the carmine things in the room that we don't find (savor, celebrate, appreciate) any of the other amazing colours. Today I'thou encouraging you to consciously have a look at your world through the eyes of optimism, gratitude and greater awareness.

Consciously detect the good. It'due south there.

So now it'south your plow to share a thought, thought, story or experience relating to this post… and yes, even you lot Newbies. Have you always shifted your focus to shift your reality? Tell u.s. about information technology.

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Source: https://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/change-your-focus-for-better-results.html

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