Chapter 66: Focus

My dear J,

This is amazing how many concepts we are taking for the True North, are actually misconceptions. We are not talking about one or two things here. We are talking about at last 80% of our imprints to be on the modest side. Today my focus is Focus.

Through my whole life, or lets say it’s earlier part I have been taught the following concepts:

• Repetition is boredom.
• Multi-tasking is power.
• The more variety – the better.

Most existent weight loss and exercise programs emphasize exercise and diet variety as a remedy against boredom and therefore against failure. They state up-front that repetition is equal boredom. They state that boredom is the major cause people abandon weight loss programs. And as a remedy they offer a large variety of exercise and diet choices, full exercise and meal plans for every day of the program. Life is full of contradictions. Little they know that scientifically proven cause of boredom is trouble with focusing one’s attention. 

How in the whole world is somebody supposed to focus her attention on weight loss while spending her days running around buying ingredients for some intricate diet dishes, different every day, and trying to remember the routine of the day when the routine print-out is left at home? Exercise and diet diversity is like a flickering tape, where pictures are changing every 30 milliseconds, making one tired and dizzy. Variety does not tackle boredom. In fact it wears one out and eventually inevitably causes boredom.

During my early karate days we used to practice across belt levels. One of the sparring routines stuck in my head till now. I have been sparring with a black belt karateka while wearing green belt myself. Was I scared? O yeah! The black belt was a tricky one. He was jumping around, making fake strikes and once and then real ones. He was very busy showing the full VARIETY of movements he knew. My mind went altered. I was standing there watching him, anticipating his strikes and just moving out of his path without blocking him. It was a funny sight. Me, green belt, standing there, watching my opponent’s core, barely moving, not reacting to his fake strikes, just escaping the real ones. Two full minutes long. And then? THEN HE WAS TIRED. His VARIETY has worn him out. Calm and FOCUSED I have grabbed his black belt, put my right foot on his stomach area, rolled over my back while taking him on my feet over my head, dropped him right behind and locked him down. Very clean game!

Another thing causing boredom is discrepancy between dynamics of our reality and our expectations. True or perceived lack of results causes boredom, mostly perceived lack of results actually. We are greedy and impatient by nature. We want everything to go very fast. “60 pounds in 24 hours please!” – This is what you said in the beginning, remember? Who cares that you spent 20 years accumulating those 60 pounds excess weight?! You want them gone overnight! This is your expectation!!!

In order to get required results we need to calm our mind, accept the truth that it will take some time, and focus on repetition. Repetition is the key to mastery. Once the weight loss goal is set – routine is to be established. The simpler the routine – the faster it gets embedded into our lives, the faster new neural paths are formed. The faster it gets embedded – the less we notice it. The less we notice something, the calmer our mind. The calmer our mind – the less we are bored. You need few exercises, the most efficient ones, calm ones, ones you easily can focus on, exercises you can do wherever you are, no matter the place, no matter the time. Exercises like your rope jumping. This is the essence of Focus. Pure, Crystal Clear Focus.

Love, Coco.