Focus: The ability to choose how we live our life
This month in martial arts class, we are teaching our students about focus. Focus is one of those buzzwords students and their parents come to us with, but if I ask people why they want to develop focus they give me varying reasons. Sometimes it’s because they want their child to do better in school. For others, so there are fewer arguments at home. Others still so their child can complete tasks without having to be constantly managed. But the definition I like to think of for focus is the ability to choose how we live our life.
Most adults, and the kids we are around, feel like they get distracted from the things they really want to do by the things around them. It could be an email, an amusing video, or just about anything we encounter in our daily lives. The challenge for all of us is to direct our time and energy to the things that we truly value in an efficient way, giving us more and more time to do the things that matter most to us.
For a child, we can’t make the concept quite that big of course. But we do want them to connect success with the ability to focus during class. So while we will have our mat chats to lay the groundwork for understanding focus, you will follow this up with drills to experience this.
Here are several examples that you will take note of in class.
1. Keeping their eyes on what they are doing: Several of the drills in class will require students to watch carefully, and not look away to distractions like peers or parents sitting in the back of the class.
2. Listening carefully: Drills that call for a quick response, demand the attention of the student. So you might see us trying to “trick” students in class by breaking the rhythm.
3. Practicing for a period without direction: How long can you keep doing the right thing, before the wrong thing gets in the way? In class, expect to see drills where we give students a task to continue with for a period of time. Generally, these are simple tasks, that a student just needs to repeat but maintain focus.
For all of us, the ability to focus can be developed much like building muscle. We take on challenges that stress our mental strength, but over time, those challenges become easier. If you keep working that muscle, it keeps getting stronger and stronger. Allowing us to focus our thoughts and energy on the life we want, instead of the distractions along the way.
