Over the past month, I have:
- gone to the wrong gate at the airport
- disembarked a train at the wrong stop
- driven to the wrong address for a hotel
- and left my cell phone on top of the car as I drove onto the freeway
When I realized I had stopped paying attention, I knew it was time to go on vacation!
While my week away was refreshing, I did wonder… how had I become so scattered? So I did some research.
John Medina, author of the book Brain Rules, explains, “We are biologically incapable of processing attention-rich inputs simultaneously.” In other words, we cannot multitask – our brains can only focus on one idea at a time.
And then my research revealed a Focus Superpower: Questions!
Questions momentarily hijack our thought process. When our brain hears a question, it automatically triggers a mental reflex which contemplates the answer. And when that happens, the brain cannot think about anything else. It’s focused solely on the question.
So I practiced my Focus Superpower on vacation:
- Why are there so many butterflies?
- What is it like for people who live here year round?
- When should I bike around the lake?
Just by asking myself a question, I forced myself to focus.
I also discovered that this Focus Superpower works on others – I can get anyone to momentarily focus by simply asking them a question (ex: What do you think of the butterflies?)
So now that I’m back in the real world, I’m exercising my Focus Superpower to be more purposeful:
- Am I going to the right address?
- What can I get done in the next hour?
- Why am I putting my cell phone on top of the car?
It seems obvious and yet the implications of an intentional pause are profound.
What do you think?