How many of you have ever been mountain biking? Great! You understand what I’m saying about focus. When you’re going down the trail you can’t focus on every rock, tree stump or turn, can you? If you do, what happens? If you are watching every bump and log that’s in front of you you’re more than likely going to hit it.
I can vouch for that. I had been riding a road bike for a few years when I decided to take up mountain biking. I didn’t have all the fundamentals down and I hopped on my bike and clipped my feet into the pedals, and headed into the the trail and made it 30 yards before I encountered the 1st log that I needed to get over.
Lost Focus
Instead of focusing on the trail past the log and just let the bike do the work of getting over the log, I focused on the log thinking oh my gosh, oh my gosh, what do I do? I hit the front brake at the same time as my front tire hit the log and I started going over the handlebars. In mountain biking that’s called an “Endo”. As I was falling over the handlebars I stuck my hand out to catch my fall. Which is a no-no. As I land, my finger tips catch the edge of a hidden log that was hidden under several vines of poison ivy. It snapped my wrist back and I ended up with a plate and 10 screws in my wrist.
Lesson learned. Don’t focus on where you don’t want to go, focus on where you do want to go.
I had to learn the same thing when I purchased a motorcycle. I went through a safety course for riding a motorcycle and they stressed over and over. When you’re going around a curve, turn your head to see where you want to end up and the bike will follow. Don’t look at the curve itself. Sure enough, it works! The bike just follows where my eyes lead.
What we focus on determines how we feel. Don’t you have some experiences in your life that if you go back and focus on them you end up feeling terrible? Aren’t there some things that you could focus on that could make you end up feeling happy and content? Sure, because how you feel is based on what you focus on.
Change Your Focus
Feeling sad and depressed? What are you focusing on? Feeling happy and joyful? What are you focusing on? You can change your attitude just by changing your focus.
Where do you want to go in life? Focus there! Remember, you go toward what you’re focusing on. If you focus on something your brain is going to try to figure out a way to get you there.
Don’t React, Act!
I confess that most of my life I lived in reaction mode. I did what was expected of me and reacted to what everyone else was doing. Don’t do that! Make a plan and change your focus!
Now I’m more excited about the future and everything around me because I have clarity. When you have focus it brings clarity.
What are you focusing on?