Focus
How to improve your focus, drive, and motivation.
Flow State
There is a state of working called either deep work or the flow state. This state is what allows athletes to train for hours on end, breaking records and achieving what seems impossible to some. Most of the highest achievers and innovators in any field of work use this state of flow to achieve their goals.
To enter this state it is important to have a micro and a macro goal:
A micro goal is a short term goal that may be for that individual session e.g. write 10 pages, complete an essay, run 5 miles etc. This allows you to have an aim and something you can see yourself achieving giving you a sense of control over your near future which is very important when it comes to focusing and “motivation”.
A macro goal is a longer-term goal over a long period of time that your micro-goals contribute to. This could be getting a certain result in an exam, finishing a book you are writing, whatever it may be for your field of work. It is important not to set a macro goal too far in the future such as years as it may not feel close enough for you to feel the pressure of the goal and deadline to work. A 6-month goal is ideal however it may be slightly longer or shorter.
The difficulty of the task is another large factor as it can determine how engaged you are which is very important when achieving the deep work state. A task has to match your skill in that area. For example, if a task is too hard compared to your current skill in that field you will most likely feel anxious or overwhelmed making it very difficult to enter a flow state or remain there. Likewise, if a task is too easy and your skill exceeds it you may not be engaged and will drift. It is ideal to have the task match your skill level so that it is challenging but not too overwhelming so that you will stay engaged. You may find you need to break down tasks in order to do this so you can understand certain things and not become overwhelmed before tackling the original task. An example of this is an essay, if your task is writing an essay but you don’t know enough about the subject the essay is about, it may be a good idea to set learning that as its own task and the original essay won’t seem as daunting when you come to it.
Distractions are the enemy of the deep work state. The smallest thing such as a phone notification can remove you from this state of flow. It is best to remove as many distractions as you can or put your phone etc in another room. It is not easy to enter the deep work state and you will feel extreme resistance therefore when a distraction takes you out of this state it is very difficult to return to. Over time the resistance entering the flow state will decrease as long as you remain consistent in practising it.
Locus of control
A large part of “motivation” and the habits people form is due to what we view as in our control. In society, we are often led to believe that people are born with inherent skills in certain fields and that is why they achieve great things. This is completely untrue and can be a very harmful view to hold.
A study in 1998 by Professor Claudia Mueller shows the power of the “Locus of control”.
She gave a group of children a task to complete and returned results to them showing the highest results. Half of these children were told that they achieved this high result because of inherent skill. The other half were told they achieved these results based on hard work.
Both groups were then given a choice of tasks ranging from easy to difficult. The group who were told their previous results were due to inherent skill put very little effort into the tasks spending most of their time on the easier one. The second group who believed their results were due to hard work spent most of their time on the harder task and achieved much higher results.
This theory is referred to as the locus of control. An internal locus of control means that you believe you and your actions determine the results you get. An external locus means that people believe their results are due to forces out of their control such as luck, fate, prejudice, bias, circumstance, etc.
Simply put this study proved that your belief of what you can achieve and the degree of control you believe you have will likely determine the results you get.
If you have an external locus of control you will find motivation very hard to come by as you are not accepting that you yourself can determine your own future and results. It will be extremely difficult to do anything if you believe that in the end, some external factors determine your results unrelated to your actions. This is why goals can also prove useful as they show a future controlled by only you and your current actions.
If you know that your current actions shape your future it becomes much easier to do them and adds a purpose to your days.
Some things can be influenced by external factors such as luck in situations like whether you get a good book deal the first time however this can always be conquered with persistence which means the control is still in your hands.
Harry Potter was rejected 12 times by publishers before success.
A way to acknowledge and start to believe in an internal locus of control is to look at where some of the people who inspire you came from. More often than not these people did not start with great things or skills but used the power of drive and persistence.
These people include:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Steve Jobs
- Nelson Mandela
- Ralph Lauren
- Oprah Winfrey
- Sylvester Stallone
Many of these people who started with almost nothing became what they are today despite the odds being stacked against them due to persistence and consistent focus. It will add a sense of purpose to your life and you will begin to feel better about yourself and find improvements in areas you might not expect such as confidence.
