Why is Focus Important?

Why is it important to focus?

Here at True Balance Karate, in Downers Grove, Illinois, we have a social emotional learning program called True Character. I’m Master H, owner and chief instructor here at the studio, and I have two master’s degrees in education. Basically, we’ve written this program to help our youngest students who are four and our oldest students who are 84.

And this month we are talking about focus. We started the month off talking about what focus looked like, focusing your eyes, your ears, your mind, your body, and then we talked about what would be some of the benefits to that or the different places that we need to focus and how we can stay focused when we’re distracted.

Positive and Negative Results

And today it’s about why should we focus? What are the benefits? What are the consequences? What happens when you don’t focus, or what happens when you do focus? And so as we’re talking about focus, concentrating, paying attention to the world around us, there are some natural consequences and some natural benefits to it. And consequences can be both positive and negative. But we’ll talk about them from the idea of a negative consequence and a positive benefit.

And so let’s take the example of school. We don’t focus in school. What happens then? Well, we can all say, okay, bad grades, get in trouble, might get sent to the office or detentions, depending on how disruptive you’ve become in your unfocused-ness. But then there’s also benefits to being focused, paying attention, being able to pass your test, being able to get your homework done, being a good student, those types of things. So when you’re focused, you can see that you have positives and negatives.

Let’s talk about it from a birthday party standpoint. We’re about to have a birthday party and we need to hang the streamers. We need to decorate the house, we need to put icing on the cake. We need to do all the things that involve preparing to have people over for a birthday party. What is the benefit of staying focused on that task and completing preparing for the birthday party? Well, things are cleaned up, stuff’s put away. It’s decorated, so it looks super awesome, really festive, that kind of thing. Consequences? The house is a mess. There’s streamers still laying on the kitchen counter when guests start to arrive. There’s no order to anything. The cake isn’t ready. So there winds up becoming these natural benefits and consequences to whether or not we are focused.

As adults, we can see the same thing at work. Like you don’t complete the project that you need to at your job and your boss is upset. Other fellow colleagues were counting on you. Things fall apart, you finish it and praise, good jobs. People are able to complete their assignment based off of what you were able to complete. All of the things that naturally flow into another positive aspect of focus.

Staying Focused

And so as we’re talking about this, we want to keep that in mind. Being more focused can have a positive impact on things. Being more focused can actually lend itself to having a little bit more free time. For example, I need to get the videos that I’m currently doing with you finished. And so as I’m working on these and they’re getting done, then I’m able to also work on the match that has that go along with it, and the worksheets that go along with it. And then if I’m working diligently, efficiently, being focused, the task is completed, it’s done, and whatever time I have left is my time from that point on.

So as we’re working on this focus idea, as we’re working forward, the benefit to staying focused, working on our priority list, working on our to-do list, working on whatever it is that we need to work on and not being distracted from the world around us lends itself to giving ourselves a few more minutes to sit down and read our favorite book or listen to our favorite music or watch our favorite show, whatever that might be. The consequence? We feel stressed and rushed and we feel like we need to get all of it finished.

So there’s benefits and consequences to keeping our focus, to working on paying attention, to putting in place some of these strategies that we’ve used in the past that we’ve talked about last week, like setting the timer to keep moving forward.

And so as you go forward into the next month, hopefully you will take one nugget about being focused with you, and we will continue to grow our focus, work on our concentration here at True Balance Karate.

Thanks, and I’ll see you on the mat!

True Balance Karate was founded in 2012 by Master Sue and Paul Helsdon.

We offer kids karate lessons for pre-school children ages 3-6 and elementary age kids ages 7 and up. These lessons are designed to develop the critical building blocks kids need — specialized for their age group — for school excellence and later success in life.

Our adult martial arts training is a complete adult fitness and conditioning program for adults who want to lose weight, get (and stay) in shape, or learn self-defense in a supportive environment.

Instructors can answer questions or be contacted 24 hours of the day, 7 days a week at 630-663-2000. You can also contact us here.