#FBF: Active Focus

We hear it all the time . . . focus on your desires. For an athlete, those desires usually include sinking that shot or scoring that goal or winning the ‘big’ game. If you can see yourself completing that task, then you can achieve it. And yes, visualizing is important, but it is more important that your focus to be active. Sitting around seeing yourself accomplishing that goal means nothing if you don’t go out there and do it. While you are visualizing, visualize perfection. Then, go do it. Practice it until you can’t get it wrong. Perfection is what many would call unattainable. Perhaps, it is but striving for perfection is attainable and desirable. Focus has to be used beyond one’s mind, and one’s mind has to be clear of all distractions and stress. The mind’s eye must be centered on the task at hand at the same time the body is performing the task. In order for focus to become laser sharp, one has to create new habits that with practice will simply hone focus and replace bad habits like procrastination, laziness and distractions. Habits that enhance focus include vision boards, setting large goals and keeping them to yourself, meditation, staring, and stealing ideas (legally of course). The goal is to cause the unconscious mind to imagine and recreate the performance during practice and games. Keep your goals, or focus, positive. Michael Jordan said that “some want it to happen, some wish it to happen, others make it happen.” Jordan is correct. Just ask Shaquille O’Neal. As great of a basketball player as O’Neal was, he was one of the worst free throw shooters in the history of the NBA. However, O’Neal continued to practice although he has admitted in recent years he did not work hard in practice. That fact may explain why O’Neal only made 5,935 of the 11,252 free throws he ever shot. That’s a 47 percent failure rate. While it’s necessary to practice what one is focusing on, it is just as important for one to maintain her focus or suffer the consequences of mistakes in her athletic performance. As the saying goes, one is a person of three parts–mind, body and spirit. The lack of focus means there’s a disturbance in mind and spirit, and those areas are just as important to an elite athlete as the body. Keep your mind and spirit right. Source: Criticalbench