 “Concentration is the master key to all success. It is the fundamental law of achievement. The man who does not concentrate will be either a half success, a mediocrity or a complete failure.” - Orison Swett Marden Your brain functions at four different wavelengths. Scientists call them:
And they measure them in CPS or Cycles per Second. At the Beta level, your brain is fully active. You are awake, alert, and fully in the moment—fifteen to forty cycles per second. This occurs when you are busiest, all pistons firing, wide awake and energetic, fully engaged in mental activities. The Alpha wavelength is much slower at nine to fourteen cycles per second. This is considered a creative, thoughtful level. Sitting down and relaxing after working at a task puts the brain into this level. When your brain is at the Theta wavelength, at only four to seven cycles per second, you are in a meditative floating state just before you slip into a deep, deep sleep. How many times have you gotten a great idea or a solution to a problem just before you drifted off? Anytime you are doing small, repetitive actions, such as brushing your teeth, or shaving, your mind can slip into the theta stage. This is considered a highly creative level for your brain. Many creative types such as writers keep a pad and pencil near them at all times, to record these wonderfully creative moments. In the Delta state, your brain is only cycling from one point, five to four times per second, indicating an unconscious deep sleep. This is probably the only time your brain is reasonably still and quiet. So, while your brain may be in the active, Beta stage during the day, as you get ready for bed, it begins to cycle down to the relaxed, Alpha stage, then to the creative, Theta stage as you fall asleep and finally down to the restful, Delta stage, or a deep sleep. When you begin to awaken each morning, your brain will cycle through these stages in reverse, coming from the Delta stage and a deep sleep, up to Theta, into Alpha and finally, by the time your alarm goes off, your brain is back into the Beta stage and ready to be highly active again. Everyone needs to learn the ability to concentrate, to focus on a task, but that ability depends on a number of factors. For starters, your commitment to a project has a great influence on how well you concentrate on it. You know that a half-hearted attempt will not bring about a successful completion to that project. If you’re enthusiastic about a project, it makes it so much easier to keep your mind on the task at hand. You’ve probably discovered that if it’s a task you enjoy, it’s easy to motivate yourself to not only start a project, but also follow it through to completion. It’s hard to focus on a job if you do not enjoy it. You have to want to do it, to be willing to start that project and be willing to do what it takes to finish it. The skills that you bring to a task also influence your ability to concentrate. The more skilled you are, the easier it is to accomplish the task and the quicker you achieve results. Knowing how to do something increases your self-confidence. You may even find that your mind wanders when the task becomes automatic, rather than totally focused as you’re learning the skills. Your emotional, physical, and psychological state has a huge influence on your ability to focus and concentrate on a particular task. If you find yourself distracted because you’re worried, or feeling ill or even just out of sorts, you’ll find it almost impossible to concentrate. Your mind constantly wanders away in search of the solution for whatever it is that’s bothering you. Your environment also has so much to do with your ability to concentrate and see a project through to completion. Most people are highly affected by too much noise, or heat or cold, or uncomfortable surroundings; even other people can be distracting and stressful to you and your ability to focus. We’ll cover more of these external and internal distractions in the next chapter. Four Elements of Concentration You’ll find, when it comes to concentration, there are four elements that help to define it. These are the:
The width of your attention has to do with the amount of information coming at you from all sources. That means that it can be a rather wide perspective, with a great deal of information directed at you, or simply a narrow perspective, where it’s just a limited amount, trying to get your attention. Being able to grasp a lot of information at the same time takes practice, and even more so to shift from a large amount to a small amount and back again. Learning to do this however, will help you to avoid the unimportant thoughts that everyone experiences all day every day, and really hone in on what’s important, to focus your thoughts. The second component of attention is direction. This means how well you are able to filter information and events as they come at you. There are times when it’s just not possible to filter out all events changing around you. This too requires practice. The third component, intensity, can vary from moment to moment. Concentration can go from very weak to incredibly intense, depending on the situation in which you find yourself. Again, it requires practice to go from weak attention to detail, to an intense, focused concentration. The last component is the duration of your attention. It can go from brief to long, sustained intervals of time. Keep in mind that it’s not always possible to maintain long periods of intense, focused attention. In fact, the more intense the attention, the shorter the duration you can maintain it. The length of a person’s attention span is on average between twenty and ninety minutes, depending of course, on the person’s interest in the subject at hand. As early as 1890, William James had already formed a definition of attention. He said, “Everyone knows what attention is. It is taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seems several simultaneously possible objects of trains of thought: focalization, concentration of consciousness are its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others.” Since then, students, athletes, business men and women, psychologists, scientists, and researchers have used everything in their arsenals to increase their ability to focus their minds on the task at hand, whatever is relevant at that moment in time, to the exclusion of all else. Athletes, intent upon their sport, have to focus their mind and body, like a laser beam on the appropriate action, pushing everything else from their minds. Only by doing so will they win the game; no time to daydream here. In sports, as with other endeavors, the play changes by the second and athletes must be focused on what they are doing, fully aware and ready to spring into action, change course, and win the game. Nothing else is acceptable. There is no room in the sports arena for daydreamers. Athletes call this ability to hone in with laser-like ability being ‘in the zone.’ Dr. Robert Nideffer, psychologist and founder of Enhanced Performance Systems has classified the two rudimentary categories of attention as internal and external. He describes internal attention as mentally projecting oneself into the proposed action, whatever problems might be encountered. External attention is, of course, what is going on around oneself. An example would be a member of a team, being constantly aware of where his/her teammates are at any given moment, as well as those on the opposing team. Athletes, probably better than anyone else, learn how to focus on the moment, to the exclusion of all else. How are we able to focus on and deal with all the information coming at us at once? Research shows that we deal with this information on two levels. One is simply automatic; we grab onto it without consciously thinking about it. This generally happens when we are performing tasks that we have learned over time and can do almost by rote. The second level we work at is called the controlled level. This is limited by the capacity of the brain to deal with all the information available to us. If we go beyond that capacity, our performance automatically declines. It is even possible to work on both levels at the same time, though of course, the automatic level works much faster than the controlled level. The trick is to bring oneself to a state of awareness and energy, directed towards the desired goal. Some athletes or those involved in other types of contests might find themselves over-excited to the point of distraction. They experience nausea or nervousness, which naturally distracts them from their original focus. You and Your Memory “People remember ninety percent of what they do, seventy-five percent of what they see and twenty percent of what they hear.” - D. Ellis The simple truth is that your learning ability has a huge impact on your quality of life. That means it can determine how you get on in your relationships, your career, your very success in this world. Everyone is constantly seeking any way they can find to improve their mental abilities. According to scientists, the average person forgets eighty percent of what they learn within a twenty-four hour period. So, since memory is easily the most important of all the cognitive functions, it’s extremely important to do whatever you can to improve your memory, concentration, and ability for logical thinking. Not being able to concentrate and focus on a project causes many problems, both in your career and in your personal life. Sometimes, it’s downright embarrassing when your mind wanders, preventing you from concentrating on a problem. You know other people are depending on you to focus long enough to come up with the solution, and you hate letting them down. Inability to concentrate can affect your school life, work life, and personal life. Studying is so much easier when you’ve mastered the ability to focus on your schoolwork. Without the ability to concentrate, you can’t take advantage of the social or business opportunities that are available to you. You need the ability to focus on your goals and dreams. Some of you may remember a television game show called “Concentration.” A giant game board held matching squares. Contestants would call out two squares, in the hope that they matched. Winners won prizes for remembering each matching pair. There are many games today for children based on this same format. Visualization is an excellent memory tool. If you can imagine something in your mind, it’s much easier to remember it. Memory and concentration must go hand in hand. When you concentrate, you are mentally directing your thoughts towards a particular problem or activity. Your memory makes it possible to access the information you have accumulated through experiences you’ve had and people you’ve met. While your brain hangs on to whatever you’ve learned, being able to access it becomes difficult sometimes. This is where the short-term memory and long-term memory come in. When it comes to testing situations, scientists have learned that the short-term memory is of little use, is ineffective, and does not respond well to stress. In stressful situations, the long-term memory is much more reliable, with the added bonus of having an unlimited capacity. So how do we go about trying to move information from our short-term memory to our long-term memory? This takes time, energy, and a great deal of practice. Repetition may be necessary to build our understanding of the material. And remember that whatever you learned last is what you’ll remember best. And this is where your conscious and subconscious mind comes in. Your conscious mind, or what constitutes about twelve percent of your mind, is what you use to consider your world and your needs, such as, “I must go to work, or pick up the children.” Your subconscious mind, or eighty-eight percent of your mind, is for storing your memories. This would involve knowing precisely where work is, how to get there, and at what time. The subconscious mind is also responsible for your beliefs and habits you’re not necessarily aware of, and how you feel about yourself. When your conscious mind is functioning, you are able to think of as many as nine things at once. This is what makes concentration so difficult. Your subconscious is trying to multi-task, while your conscious mind is attempting to concentrate on one single thought or action. It’s important to remember that using highly focused energy to concentrate on one important event or goal can change your whole world, and bring about anything you desire. The moment you concentrate on a goal, you begin to take steps to accomplish that goal. The more focused you become, the faster you will move towards completion of that goal. |
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