Focus

In the classes this week we have been talking about focus in our kung fu and in our lives. The key points being having a target to aim for and approching it with only a positive determination to get there, not dwelling on the fear that goes along with it. An interesting point made last night was that a way to achieve focus is through asking questions to yourself. Every question you ask yourself triggers your brain to go into a solutionizing mode and it will carry on working until it finds an answer while you are unaware of this. The answer will surface in your conciousness at some point, when you first wake up in the morning for example.

So the key thing is to be asking yourself positive questions and not negative ones. If you wonder why you suck at Kung Fu you brain will come up with all sorts of answers for you. Alternatively if you ask yourself what you can do to improve your kung fu again, your brain will come up with solutions. It is better to have the positive solutions floating around your grey matter than the negative 'why I suck' answers. So we need to train ourselves to ask ourselves these positive questions.

This got me thinking about the idea that we all know the answer to whatever dilemma we have, we just need to bring the answer to the surface. Counciling helps with this - a psychotherapist doesn't give us solutions, they allow us to explore our thoughts until we stumble across the answer that is already there. Some people can open a bible and look at any passage and it will strangely contain the answer to their dilemma. Does this mean the bible has some strange unwordly power? Maybe, but I would suggest that the same thing would have happened if they opened the cartoon pages of their Sunday paper and looked at the first cartoon they saw.

I have meandered from the original subject of focus. The first step is to focus on something, in kung fu it is easy - we want to master our new form, obtain our next sash or reach black sash. In life outside the school it can be more challenging. What is a worthy focus? Promotion at work? Is that going to really change anything? Happiness? How do you know when you have achieved this? I think our biggest challenge is to move from surviving to achieving something we really want, even identifying what this is is challenging. I would suggest that we try and start there.

Nick
White sash