Eyes on the Prize!

" Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus."

Have you ever found yourself in those situations where you simply loose track of what your supposed to be doing? Those times when you should be doing one thing and all to soon you find yourself doing another. It's the sort of thing that happens during school or college when you should be revising for an exam and yet, somehow, find everything else to do other than revise. We've all been there I'm sure.

Well I haven't been revising for exams today (thankfully those days are long gone!) but I did find myself in a position where I lost track of what I was supposed to be doing.

I've never really thought about it that much until today, but I think I have a really short attention span. I can't help it. I concentrate for a small amount of time and then, all too soon, I'm off in another place. I miss what's being talked about, miss the things I should be doing, and find myself thinking about rearranging rooms, or thinking about other things other than what I should be doing. It's terrible... must improve!!

Today, as part of my job, I had to do a load of paperwork and, although I got there in the end, I found myself constantly loosing track of the thing I should have been doing and ended up doing lots of other little things. Rather than focussing on just one thing and getting that finished, I ended up focussing on loads of other things and not finishing them all. Thankfully the most important tasks were finished eventually, but it took a long time to get there.

Ever been in that situation?

It may not always be in work. It can even be at home. Those times when you know there is a very specific task you have to get done (usually involving cleaning) and yet instead of just focusing on one thing and sorting it out you end up spreading your attention and focus around on loads of other things. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one like that. It's not even a question of multi-tasking (which, I know, men aren't always best at). It's a question of where you put your focus.

On the weekend, I managed to watch some clips of the Great North Run which was held on Sunday. There were loads of people there ready to run, all running for great causes. But what I enjoy watching is the professionals. Pacing and racing all the way round, finding the stamina to keep going, and of course who does that better than Mo Farah (well.. actually he came second ... but you get what I mean!)?

What's interesting to watch, during any race, is where the athletes place their focus. There are very few times during a race where runners look around them to see the competition. If they do, they usually run into things or loose speed or direction. How often do you see runners on a track running into each others' lanes? Not very often!

More often than not runners keep their eye, their focus, on one point and head straight for that. They focus on the finish and run to that point. There's definitely no problem with attention and focus here and eventually they reach the end.

All these thought got me thinking about life.

In life lots of things come at us. Whether its at home, with the family, in work, wherever. Very often we have lots going on and we try to juggle everything. Rather than simply focusing on one thing we try to sort out everything at the same time.

Ever thought about what happens to people when they try to juggle too many balls? Quite simply - they  drop them.

Just like jugglers, when we take too much on we end up getting swamped; we loose sight of the finish. Rather than focusing on one point, like the runners, we end up focusing on other less important things and completely loose sight of where it is and what it is we are supposed to be doing.

I suppose it's all about our priorities. Sorting out those things that are important first and putting everything else to one side until it's sorted. It's about focusing on the finish and reaching the end. Sometimes you just have to look at some situations and simply say to yourself, "That's not really important right now!"

There's a famous saying used by people which says, "Jack of all trades, master of none". I suppose you can apply this saying to all aspects of life. When we try to sort out everything that comes our way in one go, spreading ourselves thin, we never really overcome the challenges that come our way. All to quickly, just like the jugglers, we try juggling everything and eventually we become swamped!

But when we put our focus on those things that should take priority in our life and sort those first, one by one, then we begin to get those sorted and we reach the finish line. We see clearly where it is we're going and we know that there's nothing that can take our focus away.

So, the next time you feel yourself getting swamped in life, when everything around you is piling up and you feel yourself trying to juggle lots of things remember, it's not about getting everything sorted at once, it's not about trying to solve everything in one go. Life's not about being a "Jack of all trades", but it's about being a "master of ONE!"

Focus on the finish, take life one step at a time, and you'll find yourself at the finish line in no time!

Bywyd sydd yn byw! - Just living life!

RM