Keep The Lion On The Leash

It’s all well and good to say students need to focus more; the question is how on earth can any of us strengthen our focus on a daily basis?

Our focus can feel like a huge lion that we have on a leash. We want this lion to use its considerable power to serve us, but most of the time it’s snapping the leash and following whatever whim carries it away in the moment. So how do we begin to train this lion to stay focused on us and help us in our tasks?

The answer: slowly and in tiny steps.

Focus is built in small chunks and consequently we have to be highly alert and ready to take action when it begins to drift.

Give yourself tiny time frames during which you can practice absolute focus. Build on these small victories with incremental increases.

The moment you feel you can’t focus anymore, change your activity! This may mean getting up from study and exercising, or engaging someone in stimulating conversation.

If you want to continue in your current task, break it into even smaller pieces and only focus on achieving the next small step.

In this way, you’re actually maintaining focus but using it in a way that allows your lion to stay in the room and not snap the leash. Done often enough, you’ll be amazed at the extent to which your ability to focus grows over time.