In a fast-moving world, where everything must be quick, efficient and cheap, we are used to do different things at the same time, communicating to different people in different channels about different topics and trying to concentrate on many things at the same time. We try to be omnipresent in order to not missing out something. The result is that we lose the ability to focus on one thing for a longer time. But if you want to achieve something significant exactly this ability is needed.
One year ago, I read a very interesting TIME article* by Cal Newport that caught my interest. I started to observe myself on how often I am distracted by things and keep myself from doing the things I want to do. I realized compared with other people around me I might be quite focused already but:
I am a watchmaker. I am making watches by hand. The ability to focus is very vital to make great watches. In the timepieces of my current collection there is a lot of craftsmanship and time invested to make and finish them. To be honest more than I thought in the beginning. In the future I want to make the entire movement by hand. There are a lot more skills to learn to achieve that goal. But one key is to improve my skill of “focus”.
How much time do you spend focusing on the very things you want to do? How long can you sit still doing the one thing?
Have a great day by keeping your focus!
Steffen Cornehl
* http://time.com/4166333/focus-is-the-new-iq/