1. Concentration
The jack-of-all-trades seldom is good at any. Concentrate all of your efforts on one
definite chief aim.
- Napoleon Hill
A worried mother complains that her young rambunctious son spend hours every
day on his Playstation or Xbox. This issue is a hot potato for any parent. Young
children can get so immersed in whatever they are doing that it takes a lot of
coaxing to get them to shift their attention. This power to concentrate fully on one
thing comes naturally to young children, but it is one of the biggest challenges that
most of us confront as adults. We struggle to concentrate and, as a result, fail to
make any progress in the work we are performing.
Let me give a razor-sharp definition of “concentration.” Concentration is the
ability to focus on one single thought or subject to the exclusion of everything else.
For example, when I am reading Peter Jackson’s book Africa—part travelog, part
memoir—or for that matter any book, I am not thinking, looking at, or listening to
anything else. The quality and quantity of the work you can produce depends not
only on the effort you put in but also on your ability to concentrate. No matter how
hard you try, if your brain is not performing well, you will not be as productive as
you should be.
Man is gifted with an organized mind. Concentration is its mainstay. Compare this
to a monkey—it has an unorganized mind, as it has no concentration.
There are people who are immune to noisy surroundings (they know how to avoid
extraneous factors). They have disciplined minds that enable them to focus
intensely on the task at hand, and they perform exceptionally well as a result.
Modern psychologists refer to this state of absolute absorption in or concentration
on what we are doing as being “in the flow.” John Bright (British Radical and
Liberal statesman) was so completely absorbed in the subject of a forthcoming
speech that he thought about it day and night, talked it over with his friends, and
when no one else was available, discussed it with his gardener. On the other hand,
there are people who have little or no concentration at all. They cannot handle the
slightest noise. They are easily distracted at the drop of a hat.
2. Albert Einstein hardly ever needed a pencil and paper when solving mathematical
problems at first. His concentration was so good that he could work out his
problems in his head, and only later would he commit them to paper. The same
could be said about my science fiction writer friend. He would sit writing page
after page, turning each page neatly face down as he finished it. He never minded
children playing around him while he worked, and once as I watched in
fascination, he did not even notice a wasp circling his head.
Research reveals that those who go for a walk to clear the cobwebs away
improve their concentration vastly by changing their brain structure. Through brisk
walking, people can undergo a change, improving their attention compared with
those who are lethargic.
Concentration is the primordial element for extraordinary memory
Do you have difficulty remembering the names of people, or have you missed a
doctor’s appointment, forgotten telephone numbers, missed events and special
occasions, and failed to recall dates and times? The reason why people cannot
remember what they want to remember is that they do not concentrate sufficiently
at the moment when they are forming a purpose.
Golden advice is the following: Associate new information with something you
already know or can remember.
Example: (a) Suppose you want to remember phone numbers (which occur in
pairs). You could split 5266 into 52 and 66, and think of the 52 cards in a deck
printed with pictures of England’s footballers winning the World Cup in 1966.
(b) Suppose you want to remember the names of people. You can analyze the
physical appearance and idiosyncrasies of a person. For instance, Sync may be a
middle-aged person but might have the mind of an amoeba, a “quo vadis” haircut,
a lumpy face overgrown with stubble, might walk with a slow, stiff gait, stammer
when speaking, and have feminine hands and cavernous cheeks.
Memories are created, stored, and recalled in the part of the brain known as the
hippocampus.
3. Eleanor Maguire used brain scans to show that a region of brain at the rear of the
hippocampus known to be involved in learning directions and locations is enlarged
in London taxi drivers.
My chat crony
Charlotte had to cover a long distance to reach the top of the chocolate industry.
Charlotte dropped out of ninth grade in Harbor City, Los Angeles, and took an
apprenticeship with a printer, only to be fired. She then became an apprentice to a
candymaker in Oregon. After studying the business for four years, Charlotte
opened a company that gained a foothold in the chocolate market. She started three
successful candy companies in Indianapolis, San Antonio, and Seattle. She went
from being a person with no money a few years earlier to becoming super rich with
a huge cash flow (paying six figures for a diamond-and-sapphire brooch or a sable
wrap. In Paris, she shops in the finest boutiques on the famous avenue, the
Champs-Élysées.). Presently, she is proud of her multimillion-dollar chocolate
business. She has also written her autobiography, launched her own perfume, and
appeared on television shows, including “Celebrity Wife Swap” and “Celebrity
Stars in Their Eyes.” Along with her success came a big headache in the form of
swarms of reporters who keep hounding her to hear sound bytes. Remarkable hype
and hoopla for a deserving self-made woman!
The above circumstances were possible not because of any serendipity but rather
because she concentrated on forming growth-centric habits. She believed in the
saying, “Where there is a will, there is a way.”
Who all need to concentrate?
The ice skater, drag racer, stock car racer, environmental scientist, financial
analyst, physical therapist, video editor, bacteriologist, pushcart vendor, janitor in a
tenement building, spin doctor…without any attempt to beat around the bush,
concentration is the rudimentary component for any type of profession.
Concentrate more to reach the pinnacle of your life.
Do not be like the debonair management consultant who turned up at 11 a.m. on
the dot (to speak to an auditorium full of insurance executives in Hawaii) with a
cut on his face. He announced in his sonorous voice that, “While shaving this
morning, I was concentrating on my speech and accidentally cut myself—tsk tsk!”
4. At the reception following the 80-minute address, a member of the audience said in
a hushed tone, “Next time, concentrate on your shaving and cut down the speech!”
Mystical teacher
Salvatore was a modern minstrel with a gentle wit, a sensitive singing voice,
and wicked guitar skills. He loved eating squid and crustaceans. He lived in a
forlorn corrugated iron shanty with a sandy floor. But the biggest worry of
Salvatore’s life was when and how to give his “attention” span (a necessary
overture for mental concentration) a boost? Desperately seeking a solution, he
got into his car and drove downtown to meet a well-known mystical teacher.
The entire meeting was productive, as the mystical teacher said “yes” to
Salvatore. In the initial stages of teaching, the mystical teacher would order
(not in a harsh manner) Salvatore to observe some familiar object and to
attempt to find the maximum details in the object. Then, after scrutinizing the
report that Salvatore prepared, the mystical teacher would ask him to return to
the same task so as to find new details until the smallest of the details had
been observed. The next day, a fresh object would be given to him, and he
would be made to undergo the whole process yet again. To begin with, he was
given simple objects, and then more complex objects, until finally he could
easily master objects of immense complexity. Today, Salvatore is able to
exert the greatest amount of mental concentration while scarcely being
conscious of the effort. The great Sir Isaac Newton said, “If I have ever made
any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention than to
any other talent.”
One-track mind
“Success in life is a matter not so much of talent and opportunity as of
concentration and perseverance.”
- C. W. Wendte
Grayson is head honcho of a music company. His company promotes international
music festivals and tours for artists such as Coldplay, Nickelback, and the Jonas
Brothers, among many others. His music company also develops strategies to
stimulate ticket sales for concerts at the venues it owns or operates in North
America.
5. Once Grayson, who always prefers to wear a Breitling watch and a black bomber
jacket with logos, was invited to appear on “The Tonight Show.” He was asked to
reveal the secret to his successful rise in life.
Here he goes…
“I do not have a genius IQ. In fact, I am like the 70% of the population who
are in the 85–115 IQ range. It does not matter. I do not possess any more
talent than others, but I have learned that results can only be produced by
untiring, concentrated effort. I have always believed in a one-track mind, to
be “the best” in my field. I ate, breathed, and slept success. My work gave me
a kick. No wonder that I often enjoyed working till midnight and went to
sleep in my plush office. I am like a postage stamp; I stick to one thing at a
time.”
A few years ago, I had a difficult time as I spent the whole weekend slogging
through a report and still hadn’t finished reading it (I became aware that I
needed serious tips on concentration). Without wasting any time, I consulted
my maternal grandfather, who preached and practiced “the art of
concentration” throughout his life. His excellent memory, which allows him
to recall any complex conversation verbatim, is because of his superior skills
of concentration. Quoting an example, he says, an engine is going along the
track smoothly until someone opens all the valves and, wham, the train stops.
The same theory applies to you. If you want to use your full amount of steam,
you must close your valves and direct your power to generate mental steam
toward one end.
Concentration problem
Bryant, a licensed teacher, moonlighted as a part-time writer in the evenings
to make quick megabucks. He decided to churn out four books in 16 months,
with human cloning as the common theme. So he jump-started his writing
with great enthusiasm. However, with the passage of time, his thoughts
appeared scattered, his vision became cloudy, and he suffered from the
feeling that he was in a labyrinth. To make matters worse, he hopped from the
writing of one book to another book within half an hour. On being asked
about his odd tendency to switch from one task to another, he shot back, “I
get bored quickly. Concentration is not my métier. That is why I always only
manage to give a mediocre performance at work.” Three years slipped away,
and his time-bound project of writing four books in 16 months never gathered
6. momentum. Feeling frustrated, he dumped the idea of continuing to write.
This experience wrecked his confidence levels, and he paid a high price for
his poor concentration.
A lack of concentration and mastery over one’s thoughts usually can be
compared to piercing a thin sheet paper with a blunt pencil. Sticking a blunt
pencil through a sheet of paper will turn out to be difficult, and the paper will
only tear. On the other hand, if the pencil is sharp, the point will penetrate the
sheet of paper easily, leaving a small, neat hole.