Paying attention to what you are doing is one of the most important keys to success. If you are not able to hold your attention on one thing for some time, how can you accomplish anything?

Successful people are able to focus their mind on their goals day and night, until they accomplish them, be it money, fame, power, self-improvement or meditation. How can you improve your ability to focus your mind on your goals, when there are so many things that distract your attention?

Napoleon Hill said the following words about attention: 

“Controlled attention is the act of coordinating all the faculties of the mind and directing their combined power to a given end. It is an act, which can be achieved only by the strictest sort of self-discipline.”

“Learn to fix your attention on a given subject, at will, for whatever length of time you choose. You will have learned the secret to power and plenty! This is concentration.”

“Keep your mind on the things you want and off the things you don’t want!”

This is good advice for anyone one wishes to learn how to improve the concentration and attention. 

I have written several articles on this important subject. Here are a few of them:
The Power of Concentration
Concentration Exercises

Tips to improve concentration and attention:

1. Never tell yourself you cannot concentrate. Telling yourself that you cannot concentrate only makes it more difficult. By doing so, you program your mind to lack concentration and attention.

2. Whenever you need to focus your mind, tell yourself over and over again that you can concentrate. Tell yourself that you can develop this ability.

3. Remember that in order to improve your concentration you need to train it, like any other skill. If now you cannot fix your mind on one subject for more than a few seconds, in time, if you persevere, you will be able to fix the mind on anything for a longer time.

4. Make deals with your mind. If there is something that is distracting your attention, such as emotional problems or unresolved business problems, tell your mind that all these problems can wait for a little while, and that you will attend to them after you finish what you are doing. If this does not help you, then write down on a piece of paper what problems you have to think about or solve. This will, to some extent, temporarily remove the problems from your mind.

5. Do one thing at a time. Jumping from one thing to another will only teach your mind to be inattentive and lose attention quickly, besides that this kind of mental restlessness can be tiring in the long run.

6. When you focus your attention on anything, be alert, and when you find yourself thinking on something else, try to stay patient, and bring your mind to the subject again and again.

7. Often, when you remember, try to fix your attention on whatever you happen to be doing at the moment.

The American business author and former management professor at the University of New Orleans, Michael Leboeuf, said: “When you write down your ideas you automatically focus your full attention on them. Few if any of us can write one thought and think another at the same time. Thus a pencil and paper make excellent concentration tools.”
 
“I think the one lesson I have learned is that there is no substitute for paying attention.”
Diane Sawyer

“Where attention goes, energy flows and results show.”
T. Harv Eker

“Excellence is in the details. Give attention to the details and excellence will come.”
Perry Paxton

Peace of Mind in Daily Life is a book with exercises and advice on how to improve your concentration and attain mental mastery and inner peace. The more inner peace you have, the stronger your ability to focus your attention on what you are doing.
 

Copyright © 2008 Remez Sasson Remez Sasson Blog. | Permalink | 3 comments

When doing the concentration exercise number 1, which is counting words in a book, I always keep on counting, and if a negative thought comes, I ignore it and keep on counting. Is it ok to do the exercise this way, or do I need to start from the beginning?

Here is what I replied:

If you are able to ignore the distracting thoughts and keep your attention on the counting, that’s okay.

If you are not able to resist the distracting thoughts, follow them, and then after a while catch yourself thinking about something else, then you will have to stop the exercise and start from the beginning.

Resisting the distractions and continuing the exercise without loss of attention is different from forgetting the exercise and thinking on something else.

Thoughts always try to distract the attention, but if the will and desire are strong, and the attention is strong, the concentration will continue, in spite of some thoughts at the background. If the will, desire and attention are not strong enough, you will most probably forget to concentrate, and become aware that your mind has drifted away, only some time later. This might be after several seconds or even several minutes. In this case the distracting thoughts become the main focus, and you will need to start the exercises from the beginning.

It is like working out with weights. If you lift the barbells and do the exercise, in spite of the difficulty, you are strengthening your muscles. However, if you stop the exercise, do something else, and then again try to lift the barbells a few moments, only to give up again, you are not doing anything. So it is with concentration exercises. Not giving up and continuing without loss of attention, in spite of the attempts of the mind to distract the attention, will result in strengthening the concentration.

Strengthen your concentration and bring inner peace to your mind.

Attain mental mastery.

Develop inner detachment and inner strength.

Become aware of the Consciousness beyond the mind.

Peace of mind in Daily Life

Copyright © 2008 Remez Sasson Remez Sasson Blog. | Permalink | No comment