We sometimes think of our concentration or mental powers as something we were born with. Either you were born with a good concentration or you weren’t.
But on most cases – at least of individuals without an explicit pathology -, concentration is much more related to your mental habits than to your genes.
Sure some people may be blessed with some imaginary “concentration gene”, while others cursed with some mental pathology. But those are the exceptions and not the majority of the population.
For the vast majority of us, we simply developed negative mental habits that don’t support the use of our concentration.
For example:
You may follow your impulses to check any minor distraction instead of finishing what you are doing. Which is supported by our current culture of constant cell phone notifications, be it social media, email or text messages.
Also, you don’t discipline your thinking and just allow it to roam free with no direction.
Or worst… you’re not aware of your thoughts and overall energy. If that’s the case, you can’t possible have any kind of control over them.
On many cases, your concentration can be improved a great deal when you apply inner power to your mental habits.
That’s why the training of concentration always goes hand in hand with inner power and Will. You can’t train one without the other.
A simple and easy “low tech” technique to “help” your inner power and avoid constantly following your impulses is simply to use a piece of paper and a pen.
I’ll explain:
Let’s say you decide to focus on any given task you must do. And you decide to do it until it’s finished, which may take around one hour. Before you start, get a single sheet of paper or a notebook and a pen right in front of you. Also do the obvious thing of turning off your email, cell phone or any sort of notifications.
Then begin doing your task.
On most cases, what will happen is that in the first 20 minutes or so – until you achieve a flow state – your mind will constantly throw at you different kinds of distractions.
You will suddenly realize many other important tasks or activities you have to do. Whenever one of these impulses for another activity arises, you write it down on your piece of paper so you can remember to do it later when you finish.
It doesn’t matter how silly it is. It can be to do your laundry, call someone, visit a website, send an email, research some information. It doesn’t matter. Write it down as quickly as you can and continue with your current task.
If you get into the habit of writing down what you need to do instead of stopping your workflow, your distraction impulses will get weaker and weaker to follow. And using your inner power to stay focused will be a lot easier.
In other words, you train your mind to stay focused instead of developing the negative habit of breaking your concentration at every minor issue.
It’s a simple technique that makes a world of difference if you actually use it.
We developed an advanced concentration training with a whole practice designed to take your concentration to the next level. Check it here:
