Focus is a topic which falls under the Core in Flow5 C.O.A.C.H Process and In Episode 16, Coach Louise took us through 2 videos which gave insight into this all-important activity in life.
In The Monkey Business Solution video, viewers were asked to count the number of passes made by basketball players. In focusing on this specific task, surprisingly many viewers failed to observe a person in a gorilla suit, the color of a curtain changing from red to gold and a person on the black team leaving the game. This illusion highlights the concept of "inattentional blindness," revealing that our attention is limited and selective, often causing us to miss unexpected events in our environment.
Our brains can process 11 million bits of information in a second. (For those who are unscientific like me, a bit of information is the smallest unit of data. This means that in one second, our brains are registering through our 5 physical senses and also our psychological senses, 11 million things like making out objects, assessing light levels, making connections and recognition of people, the current and past emotions we have towards, sieving through babble for voices and distinct sounds, volume levels, differentiating smells simultaneously from the food before us, the fragrance someone is wearing, smell of the flowers on the table, etc. I could go on.) However, our conscious mind can only handle 40-50 bits of information! (What's with that, Brain?) To protect our brains from information overload, the brain generalises Bit No. 51 - Bit No. 11 million, sorts through the level of importance, retains some impressions, creates unconscious bias and decides what is not important and perhaps for the many who didn't see the gorilla, just focusing on the players passing the ball had taken up all 50 bits already.
In the second video, we were introduced to Alex Honnold, a renowned rock climber known for his incredible feats, particularly his free solo ascent of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. This monumental achievement is considered one of the ultimate challenges in the world of rock climbing. Honnold's meticulous preparation, unwavering concentration, and physical prowess were crucial in successfully navigating the sheer granite walls of El Capitan without the use of ropes or safety equipment. The power of Focus in not seen only in the time of his climb but being fully invested in his preparation to study the wall, paying attention to the route and to get to the state of fitness needed for the climb. This demonstrates how Focus can help a person succeed in surmounting major challenges.
Our Coachees come to us with what Coach Louise calls "their box of stories" seeking our support to sort through the tangle of frustrations of dreams, hopes and ambitions and their anxiety and fear to find what they should focus on to move forward. It is important that we understand what our own focus is and the difficulties in determining and maintaining focus. If we are not careful and call them out on not being focused, we may trigger amygdala hijack as the brain focuses on 'fight or flight' and the feeling brain takes over from the thinking brain. When Coachees become defensive, the brain stops directing its energy not on finding solutions for their problem which altogether defeats our purpose. The Coachee must feel always feel safe, not judged.
Coach Louise then introduced The Wheel of Life, an self-assessment exercise that measures different areas of life and measures the strength of each one. This visual map helps us to review our priorities and determine what our focus has been and then re-align with the rest of core process to establish a focus which is meaningful and purposeful. She also offered other suggestions as to how the Wheel of Life could be used to coach other situations.
Reflections
A great amount of importance is placed on finding one's focus for success. The opposite of Focus is Distraction. Interestingly I found out that Distraction was also the word given for a form of torture in Roman times and medieval France where a man's limbs were tied to horses who were released. The person was dis-tracted! In the same way, we can be metaphorically torn apart by competing priorities eg it is very hard to honor our responsibilities as a parent of young children, children of ageing or sick parents and still fulfil our obligations at work and we are accusing of not focusing enough on what's truly important. What about other aspects of our lives which deserve attention but are drowned out by family and work?
It is very hard therefore to decide where that focus should go. Rather than about getting clarity on what their focus should be, people talk more about needing more time or better time management because they are trying to accomodate all the priorities. We might be able to bend time and energy or stretch it a little but the persistent effort to serve different goals leads to some sacrifices.
I was piqued by the fact that the human brain can only handle 40-50 bits of information at one time and started internet checking on multitasking. In the March-April 2019 issue of Cerebrum, researchers say, "One critical finding to emerge is that we inflate our perceived ability to multitask: there is little correlation with our actual ability. In fact, multitasking is almost always a misnomer, as the human mind and brain lack the architecture to perform two or more tasks simultaneously. By architecture, we mean the cognitive and neural building blocks and systems that give rise to mental functioning. We have a hard time multitasking because of the ways that our building blocks of attention and executive control inherently work. To this end, when we attempt to multitask, we are usually switching between one task and another. The human brain has evolved to single task." This suggests that the brain's default is to be focused and we therefore place a lot of stress on ourselves when we expect to handle many tasks at one time and having many foci (Plural of focus - not kidding.)
Our Focus is also affected by what is called "The Tyranny of the Urgent". We lose our focus on what we are doing because something else urgent comes up and then something else more urgent until we don't get to finish what we were first focused on doing. We end the day feeling exhausted but never having the sense that we have completed anything. Although it is suggested that we weigh urgent against important or urgent vs emergent (that could become an emergency), it doesn't change the fact that someone wants something NOW!
Our Focus become affected when we are overly engaged with media and social media because it sets up expectations which are unrealistic. The SuperMom who is a high-flying successful executive in a company, always perfectly coiffured and manicured, who prepares breakfast and sends kid and husband off to their day and returns after a long day at work to prepare a sumptious meal is a myth more than a reality and yet we still believe it is possible to achieve excellence in every area of our lives and maintain equal amount of importance for all.
The Wheel of Life is a very useful exercise to go through because most of us are not entirely aware that there are other areas of life to consider. Through it we can check if our efforts and energies are aligned with what we consider as truly important and take measures to address the balance. However, focus shifts all the time and the tools for staying a course are necessary. Self-reflection is not enough - it must be coached through as well to be effective in supporting a Coachee to decide what his Focus is and stay on course with clear action plans. Dr Jeremy Sutton offers a fairly comprehensive way in an article in Positive Psychology as to how coaches can coach using the Wheel of Life. If nothing else, a Coach is there to reassure that it is indeed difficult and there are moments where we cannot be focused and it is still alright.
Final Thoughts
By nature, I have a mind that tends towards divergent thinking and can easily lose focus. In the process of doing this reflection alone, I have been interrupted when I checked on cooking recipes for my family, the weather on Jeju Island, commented several times on Facebook, and sorted out part of my inventory of fabric craft hardware - I know how many yards of fabric which are printed with cats and how many 25mm D rings and keyfob clasps I have! Even in the broader picture, I had preferred doing jobs which had different tasks and when I was a school teacher, I simultaneously gave tuition, did the midnight shift at a radio station and wrote scripts for a Business TV Cable station and did book reviews for a local newspaper. To a lot of people that means I have zero focus and for Zig Ziglar, I will never amount to success. Except that - I have a big secret - I may not have one focus but I can focus well on one thing at a time.
Truth be told, my energy goes in spurts and if I do not take creativity breaks, I get very stuck. I do not consider these as distractions. Having done the Wheel of Life for myself, I am spending a lot of time and energy to becoming an effective Coach and I would like to say that I am focused upon my career. But there are other demands on my time because of my dear 92 year old dad and also my mum who is progressing towards a late stage of dementia. They occupy the top of my mind because I understand and have accepted that I will not have them for many more years and I will drop everything if they need my attention. In between, I absolutely need the space for myself for creative expression. Wherever that activity I am involved in, I try to stay present and focused.
The point is however that we are all made differently and setting one's focus because of other people's expectations and our own unrealistic expectations can lead to greater anxiety and sabotage our best efforts to do better. Everything is important and wherever we place our bets, the chances of success are 50/50 just as hindsight is 20/20. People who have spent all their lives focused on climbing the corporate ladder may be laid off suddenly. Forbes reports that "in 2023, nearly half of all observed job cuts were manager-level or higher, according to research from Live Data Technologies. Layoffs in leadership made up almost two times the share of total terminations compared to the previous five-year average." Then again, they may realise that they may have paid a high price for their job success. On the other hand, friends I know questioned their own decision to exit from fulltime work to mind their children because once the children have become independent, it is near impossible to return to the job market. Those who have neglected health and spirituality fare no better because focus can change in different life stages
No one wants to be distracted and a greater attempt to define focus will help progress to the life we want to live but let's be kinder to ourselves and others, in determining what it is that we should give importance, time and energy to and have the courage to move from there.
Coach Maire, off to watch her Korean drama...
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