FOCUS FORWARD: Master Your Attention, Stop Straining & Start Gaining.

This article has been reposted from The Grip on plenteouslife.com

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Four-year-old Billy and his mom arrive at the playground. As soon as Billy's feet hit the grass, he runs toward the slide. Out of love and concern, Billy's mom instinctively calls after him, "Be careful, Billy! Don't fall!!"

Notice Billy’s mom doesn’t yell, “Run strong!” Instead, she calls for the opposite of what she wants, and that instruction teaches Billy to do the same. Thus begins the cultivation of one of the most disempowered thought processes known to man: focusing on what you don't want in an effort to achieve what you do want.

This disempowered focus gets initiated, then habituated, and eventually automated so that by the time you’re about seven years old, you’re already programmed to focus on what you don’t want…you don't even know it's happening. And it will frustrate you like nothing else in this life.

Being focused on what you don’t want is so prevalent that unless you have intentionally done work to reverse it yourself, it's probably running in the background of your thinking right now, silently wreaking havoc on your desired results.

Today's issue of The Grip will help you identify this disempowered practice in your own life and show you how to shift your focus so that your focus works for you rather than against you. Mastering your attention is one of the most effective ways to achieve desired results.

Put simply, success comes more easily and quickly when you stop focusing on what you don't want and focus on what you do want instead.

MASTERING YOUR MENTAL FOCUS

Easily Increase Desired Outcomes

It is widely known that our bodies are neurologically hardwired to physically move in the direction in which our eyes our fixed. We see this play out in sports, gymnastics, dance, even driving a car. Visual focus is a powerful command to the subconscious brain, “Go there!”

When it comes to getting desired results in your life, your mental focus operates in a similar way; it is a powerful command to the subconscious brain, “Go there!” So, whether your focus works for you or against you depends on the direction you are telling it to go.

Remember this principle: Action follows focus. Always. This hardwiring of your neurochemistry has the capacity to be your greatest friend or foe, depending on how you direct your focus. So do yourself a favor and align your focus with the desired results you wish to produce.

The easiest (not the only) way to identify how you are currently directing your mental focus is to ruthlessly examine your language; both what you say to yourself as well as to others. Once identified, you can convert any disempowered focus to an empowered one by answering this one question: What do I want instead? Then practice repeating your answer multiple times a day as you would when learning any other new language. With practice it will become your new normal.

The following is a list of disempowered phrases commonly used in western culture, personally or professionally. Each one has been upgraded from a disempowered focus to an empowered one. The purpose of the list is to help you identify where you may currently be habituated to focusing on what you don’t want simply from the everyday language that surrounds you. This is the starting point for unlearning the deeply automated patterns of disempowered focus you likely acquired from an early age.

1. Don’t be late. UPGRADE TO: Be on time.
2. Don’t forget to. UPGRADE TO: Remember to.
3. Don’t quit. UPGRADE TO: Keep going.
4. Don’t be a jerk. UPGRADE TO: Be kind.
5. Don’t mess up. UPGRADE TO: You’ve got this.
6. Don’t freak out. UPGRADE TO: Keep calm.
7. Don’t drop it. UPGRADE TO: Hold on to it.
8. Don’t be stupid. UPGRADE TO: Choose wisely.
9. Don’t treat me like that. UPGRADE TO: Treat me like this.
10. Don’t lose the account. UPGRADE TO: Make a raving client.

As you practice shifting your focus from what you don’t want to what you do want through general language, you’ll grow to notice the unique ways disempowered focus shows up specifically in your life. Each time you identify a disempowered focus, replace it with the answer to, “What do I want instead?” Practice the empowered focus until it becomes automatic; with diligent practice, it will.

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Effectively Deal With Reality

In a very practical sense, focusing your attention on what you don’t want in an effort to achieve what you do want is like attempting to drive to Florida by programming your GPS for Canada, and then being mystified each time you end up in Toronto instead of Miami.

If you focus on not being poor, you will struggle to become wealthy. If you focus on not getting divorced, you will struggle to create an extraordinary marriage. If you focus on not being sick, you will struggle to optimize your health.

Undesirable outcomes are real, but you won’t deal with them effectively by focusing your attention onto them. You deal effectively with undesirable outcomes by focusing your attention away from them and onto what you want instead. To do so, it will serve you greatly to distinguish between Awareness and Attention: You can be aware of what you don’t want while simultaneously focusing your attention onto what you do want. This is the way.

Action follows focus. Always.

Use what you don’t want as a piece of information or data point, and nothing more, without being distracted or derailed by it. You can be aware of poverty while focusing your attention on generating wealth. You can be aware of divorce while focusing your attention on creating an extraordinary marriage. You can be aware of illness while focusing your attention on optimizing your health.

Consistently and diligently refocusing your attention away from what you don’t want and onto what you do want will dramatically—and easily—increase how quickly you achieve desired results.

Don’t believe me. Test it and see.

Keep creating!

May you prosper in every way!

Becky & TPL Team