Stage 1: Self-Awareness↔Conscious Mind

The first step in changing behavior, or even knowing the right action to take, is self-awareness. It’s the ability to step outside yourself for a moment in order to make a calculated or conscious decision. Unlike subconscious thought, this is a completely internal reaction to the world around us. It’s a more proactive action instead of a subconscious reaction to everything swirling around us. This ideal level of consciousness is what separates humans from the rest of the animal kingdom. We have the ability to weigh all possible reactions to our actions before we take them. But time is in increasingly short supply, and conscious thinking doesn’t always provide the path of least resistance to get the job done. For many of us, on a daily basis, conscious thinking is suboptimal for the following reasons:

• Slower processing
• Amount of effort required
• Limited information

In order to achieve sustainable focus and clarity, we must also be self-aware. Many managers sometimes make decisions based largely on what their direct competitors are doing. This makes sense on the surface. If the rest of the market is clearly moving in one direction, shouldn’t we be devoting more resources to pivot in that direction as well? A new strategy is one thing, but executing it is an entirely different animal and requires buy-in at every level. So, before you go all-in on a new product offering or marketing campaign, make sure you step back and reflect on this important question—do I really believe in this? If you do, then changing your team’s dynamic and processes won’t be nearly as difficult because you can instill that belief in your team and more easily empower them to focus on a singular goal. The conscious mind can form or reform the subconscious mind.

Stage 2: Autopilot↔Subconscious Mind

The best way to respond to an overstimulated situation is to switch on mental autopilot—the subconscious mind. This second level of consciousness allows us to process information much faster with considerably less energy. If work starts to become more repetitive and tedious, which it has with more and more people using digital tools for everyday tasks, then our brains have to find the path of least resistance to get the job done quickly. This is the level where your habits live and why it is important to build good habits. Here are a few more reasons why subconscious engagement has become the new normal for many workplaces and their people:

• Speed
• Energy conservation
• Task switching “multitasking”
• Habits
• Amount of information to process
• Demands
• Time
• Memory

Before computers ever existed, we had to rely on our brains alone to handle the repetitive tasks of previous generations. Picking crops, threshing wheat, or churning butter were all necessary routine tasks that needed to be performed every day. The critical difference now is that the mindless chores of today require very little manual labor. Our brain is still wired to expect all of the senses to be triggered during this stage of consciousness, but in many cases, our primary sensory input is simply staring at a screen and typing on a keyboard. The work itself is still mentally taxing, but it is less rewarding since we aren’t receiving any of the benefits of physical labor (dopamine/endorphin rush, increased heart rate, etc.). You may feel productive checking all of these tasks off your daily to-do list, but this auto-pilot leaves very little time to focus on building and creating new things.

Stage 3: Endless Galaxy↔Unconscious

Do you know that there are at least 100 billion galaxies in the known universe? Trying to wrap your head around that is impossible because it’s infinite—it literally cannot be quantified. This is similar to the unconscious mind—the limitless reservoir of knowledge, creativity, and experiences that makes up the other 85 percent of our brain we can’t directly access, yet still has tremendous influence over our behavior and decision making. Do you ever catch yourself daydreaming? Thinking about an experience or idea or thought that came out of the blue? Whether it’s staring out a window aimlessly at work or fixing your gaze on a favorite painting at home, our minds always have a tendency to wander when they are idle. It’s hard not to feel a little guilty once you snap back to reality—“I can’t afford to waste time daydreaming today!” But recent research proves quite the opposite—daydreaming and idle thought may be the most valuable use of your time.

• Critical thinking—Unconscious thinking effortlessly builds connections between the conscious (self-awareness) and subconscious (autopilot) parts of the brain.
• Enhanced insight—Professors Benjamin Baird and Jonathan Schooler have proven that taking a few moments to daydream and reflect on a new task leads to more insightful responses than immediately focusing on the solution. Have you ever been in the shower or in the middle of sleep and you came up with a great idea? This is the true power of the mind; it usually has the answer if you allow it to go there.
• Problem solving—“Your mind-wandering capacity is like that computer program—it can get to solutions that your conscious mind just can’t see.”—Amy Fries, Daydreams at Work: Wake Up Your Creative Powers
• Improved concentration—Even a 30-second break from a difficult task can increase your focus.
• Better productivity—The Pomodoro Technique breaks up work into 25-minute sessions with short five-minute breaks between them. After four sessions, the breaks become 15 minutes and give your brain more time to reflect and form new neural connections.

The unconscious mind holds the answers to many questions and problems. Because of its infinite capacity, the unconscious can be the most powerful part of the brain. To access this information on demand takes training and the ability to quiet the mind; it takes deliberate practice.

Our focus level depends on which consciousness we tap into at any given moment. We need all three to function, but you aren’t reading this book just to scrape by on irrational fear-based reactions. You want to attain a higher level of focus that comes from an active rhythm of conscious and unconscious thought. That’s the bedrock to building a foundation of sustained clarity of vision despite all the distractions. Now let’s take a closer look at how to avoid distraction through better attention.

Engagement

The science behind focus is actually fairly straightforward. There are two ends to the focus spectrum, and the ultimate goal is to favor the engagement and interest end. When we are engaged and internally interested in something, we can focus on it for hours on end without our performance diminishing. Think about something in your life in which you were fully engaged. Maybe it was writing, solving a complicated math problem, painting, playing music, or spending quality time with the kids. Now think of all the stuff you aren’t engaged in—probably taxes, mandatory meetings, driving in traffic, or waiting in the grocery checkout line, just to list a few. What do you notice about your focus? How does your performance differ?

A key distinction worth stressing is that engagement and interest do not always mean entertainment, enjoyment, and pleasure. In this age of instant gratification, we sometimes forget to find interest and engagement in the little things or the stuff that challenges us. This could be a big part of tackling focus and attention for you and your organization. Next time you say or hear your team say that something was boring or not interesting, ask yourself or them, “Is this something important and could it make you better?” If so, find the smallest detail to gain your interest or engagement. This practice will allow you to develop the ability to engage on demand and focus when needed. It’s muscle memory for paying attention, and we end up wanting to learn more. Some of the best outcomes come from things we didn’t want to do; these small incremental actions lead to better results down the road. The lack of engagement is truly the root cause of the lack of focus. Find engagement and you will find focus.

Fear

The other end of the attention spectrum is fear. As we alluded to earlier, fear can fuel a false sense of focus. Fear creates a mere tunnel vision of focus with very limited ability or awareness to adapt to change. Ever cringe at that e-mail where you didn’t get the business, beat yourself up for making a huge mistake like double booking an important meeting, or feel ashamed after forgetting a loved one’s birthday? You get sick to your stomach, and all you can think about is what you did wrong. You become completely detached from the present and start fixating on the past or future—which you can’t control.

I (Matt) remember an e-mail that I received one Friday afternoon on my way to my annual buddy golf trip. It was from a prospective client that I was confident we were going land. We went through all the steps: We did eight months of follow-up and follow-through, brought out all the bells and whistles, and jumped through all kinds of hoops to deliver what I thought they wanted. Much to my chagrin, they politely explained why we didn’t earn the business and why they didn’t see the long-term value in our services. On this sunny and beautiful summer Michigan day, I made the mistake of allowing fear to dictate my focus. I immediately started to dwell on my failure and question the viability of our business model if we couldn’t close this deal. This wasn’t the first rejection we’d received, nor would it be the last, but for whatever reason it shook me to my core. I couldn’t stop thinking about this e-mail and let it cloud my judgment and mood despite the trip’s potential enjoyment.

After the dust settled, it became clear just how much I blew this one shortcoming out of proportion. It was a humbling reminder that we can’t always get what we want. Now when I receive these types of letdowns, I have a strategy and plan to not allow fear to dictate my thoughts and subsequent actions. I instead focus on the improvements needed and engage on what I can control. When you think about it, fear is largely fueled by future visions that have yet to happen. Today’s workforce and leadership have more fear than ever before. It’s not a question of avoiding fear; it’s an answer of how you are going to perceive this threat with your mind. Most fear is not in the present moment. It’s in the past or future. This ultimately means it’s not real!

Boredom

In the middle of the spectrum and what takes up the most space in our lives is boredom. Don’t think of boredom as a bad thing. Whether it’s another mind-sucking meeting or a conversation with your lovely neighbor about her five cats, it’s an inevitable fact of life. Our brains operate in a bored state longer than you may think—about half of the day according to recent studies. This mindless time allows us to preserve energy while still creating thousands of new neural pathways that fuel creativity and concentration. We will talk about energy in the next chapter and how to improve and sustain it, but in the context of focus, boredom is simply the lack of attention (Figure 5.2).

Boredom is also important because it’s the exact opposite of engagement. Like any of our other emotions, it’s felt most sharply when the affirmative or positive side of the spectrum is absent. If we are living in constant fear of failure or cruising along on autopilot through a sea of boredom long enough, we stop seeking real engagement. We’ve trained ourselves to operate at a lower level than our infinite capacity. We must spend more time paying attention and engaging with the stuff that actually matters.

Breathing

One of the most powerful and effective methods to focus is learning how to use breath awareness and belly breathing to quiet the mind. We will take a deeper dive into this in Chapter 8, “REST,” but it is necessary to understand when talking about focus tactics. Belly breathing and breath awareness is the only way we can internally quiet the mind. The human body basically has two ways to breathe—chest breathing, or survival breathing, and belly breathing, or optimal breathing. Try this exercise to start practicing belly breathing:

First, if possible lay on your back in a comfortable position. If you can’t lie down, sit upright in a chair with your chest up and shoulders back. Inhale through your nose; feel the slight coolness of your breath and bring all of your attention there. Next, exhale through your nose, feeling the air passing back out through your nose; bring your attention there. Do this for 10–15 seconds and keep your attention on the act of breathing alone. Try not to let your mind wander and simply be in the moment.

Pause—what are you thinking about? Is it possible to focus on your breath and your thoughts at the same time? Of course not! It’s a powerful yet simple truth. Our minds can only focus on one thing at a time.

Once you have your breath awareness down, aim your attention at your belly. As you inhale your belly should rise. The belly will fall smoothly once you exhale. You should have no movement in your chest. This is the first exercise to train the diaphragm—which happens to be the second most important muscle in the human body (first is the heart). When we start to practice our breathing, we can begin to learn how to quiet the mind and create true focus.

This is an exercise we recommend doing daily, hourly, or when you need to focus, reduce stress, and execute. Breathing is our most powerful tool to manage the mind. Most of us neglect that power because breathing is an autonomic act. Now that you know the key to optimal breathing, you can quiet the mind during any stressful moment and make a conscious decision on your next move or action.

Cancel the Noise

Do you own a pair of noise-cancelling headphones? Over the past five-plus years it seems the growth of the headphone business has exploded. Everywhere you look, people are wearing these large almost goofy-looking noise-cancelling headphones. Companies like Bose and Beats are leading the way.

Now we understand this concept of canceling the outside noise to enjoy your entertainment, but how do we apply it to our daily lives? What will this noise cancellation do for our focus and performance? This tactic is one that we find people know about, even dream about, but don’t know how to execute. How do you know what is noise and what isn’t? Does this mean you should be rude and unapproachable? Can you imagine life with two or three more hours of quality time a day to work on what you are meant to do? How much time in your day is unnecessary noise?

Here is how you cancel noise:

• Step 1: What outcome do you want? To truly block out noise, you must know where you are going. Start with this simple question—what outcome do you want? If you achieved this outcome would you consider it a huge success? Think big. What is possible? What are you capable of?

• Step 2: Create a plan or process. After you have set the outcome you desire—whether it’s bringing in $11 million of new business in Q3 or finishing the concept for the next product—it’s time to work backward. What is the timeline? Who needs to be involved? What actions need to be taken every month, week, and day? Build a clear process that outlines a roadmap to the very likely achievement of your goals. That’s the critical point: you can’t control the outcome; you only control the process. We have plenty of projects and outcomes, but many lack a process.

  A great example of simplifying the process is Cheryl Bachelder, who became CEO of Popeyes in 2007. When she took over, the brand was struggling and behind projections for future revenue. One thing she noticed was management and franchisees had over 120 initiatives. Many of them were either redundant or straying away from the most important objectives. So she launched a corporate plan to minimize and refocus these initiatives. She took the company from 120 initiatives to 6. Her focused leadership led to a quadrupled company valuation and over $1 billion in revenue growth over the last 10 years.

• Step 3: Create an inner circle. Assemble a group of accountability partners. This is the critical few—the fewer the better. This group completely buys into the process and its stated outcomes. Although they may disagree on how to create a better outcome, they all adhere to the process and are committed to the executables. These are the champions to the process—the folks who truly believe the why and what of the system. Create roles and lanes for each stakeholder and don’t allow outside influences to change the process without consensus first. There’s entirely too much noise, information, trends, hacks, and quick fixes to distract us. This inner circle protects you from this noise. It’s the best way to filter the noise from the substance.
• Step 4: Follow through and keep your head down. It is so easy to get distracted. It is easy to think the grass is greener on the other side. Maybe the competition is moving faster from your vantage point. Maybe you aren’t innovating as fast. These are the psychological detours we all must avoid. You establish what you want, create a process, and build an inner circle—that system won’t lead you astray. Always be open-minded, curious, and aware of where the market is moving—but all successful strategies are guided by noise-cancelling focus on what really matters.

Practice

A world-class chef needs to experiment with different dishes and practice new techniques in order to perfect his or her craft. When we want to crush a presentation or pitch, we must rehearse, revise, and practice. When it comes to focus, we just expect it to be there, and if it’s not, then we must not be able to focus. Stop there. Just like any other skill, attaining focus requires careful practice.

Start by practicing your focus on the little things first. Can you get little wins by focusing for eight seconds, one minute, or even five minutes without a break or distraction? Research has shown that we rekindle childhood curiosity and creativity by focusing on the small details around us. These baby steps add up quickly in the concentration game.

Here’s an exercise: Pick a task like lead prospecting, reading an article, or outlining a project. Set a realistic time you can devote to fully engaging in that task. Set your timer, and only perform the set task without breaking for any other distraction. Feel free to silence your phone to avoid any push notifications that might break your concentration. Restrain yourself when you feel the temptation to check your phone or e-mail. Do this for one minute, then five minutes, and see if you can get up to 90 minutes. Ninety minutes is when you should take a break—physically and mentally. When was the last time you went 90 minutes without switching from a task?