This is From The Balance Beam

[TheBalanceBeam] - The Power of Focus

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THE BALANCE BEAM
Ideas and Inspiration for Creating a Life that Works
Vol. 3 No. 10, August 31, 2002
Published by Success Builders, Inc.
http://www.SuccessBuildersInc.com
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"He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened."
Lao-tzu
In this issue: THE POWER OF FOCUS
====================================================================== Dear Friends:
What have you been dwelling on lately? For most of us, wherever we focus our thoughts, attention, and mental energy is what becomes most real in our lives. This issue of The Balance Beam looks at the Power of Focus, and invites you to consider what you are making manifest in your world.

If you are interested in reading earlier editions of The Balance Beam, you can easily retrieve them by clicking on http://www.successbuildersinc.com/newsletter.html and going to the Archives section. If you are not yet a regular subscriber to The Balance Beam, you can also enter your subscription information at this location.
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Today's Topic: THE POWER OF FOCUS

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that this has been one of the toughest business years in a while. Regardless of the size of your business or the industry you're in, you've probably felt the shock waves that have reverberated through most organizations since last year this time. Not only has volatility been the nature of the game, it's also been a major topic of discussion for most business people over the last twelve months.

Listen to the conversations that happen in your workplace. If you keep your ear to the ground, you'll hear a mixed bag of concerns about market skittishness, lack of consumer confidence, increased costs and shrinking 401K accounts. Just imagine what it must be like to be a trader on the floor of the stock exchange these days, where hearts and pounding and people are holding their breath as the closing bell approaches each afternoon. Although I haven't seen any statistics, I'd be willing to bet there's been a significant increase in stress-related illnesses among people in the investment industry this year, and it's my hunch that more than a few people have probably bailed out because their nerves just couldn't stand the daily focus on sliding markets.

The power of focus is strong stuff. We can't see it or feel it, but it is undoubtedly the most influential factor in determining what happens in the world around us as well as in our own lives. Simply put, we get what we focus on.

When news of the Enron/Arthur Andersen debacle first hit, it was quickly followed by breaking stories of corporate corruption and accounting scandals in numerous other major organizations. For a while there, it seemed like every day brought a new headline about cooked books or insider trading practices or executive greed. They came out of the woodwork and wreaked havoc on an already faltering economy. We got more of what we focused on.

In the more personal side of the news, we've seen a string of child abductions that followed an initial incident in California. Some might call this evidence of copycat crimes; it was also more of what we focused on. Even the West Nile Virus is having a heyday enjoying its fifteen minutes of fame, as we're now up to something like ten infected birds being found in a state that had remained unscathed until the last week or two. We've become focused on dead birds and mosquitoes and I'm finding that I itch more than I used to.

Now I know that some people would say that these patterns are always around us and what appears to be strange coincidence is just a matter of better investigation of the issues of the day. I kind of like that sort of logical explanation, and it certainly does make me feel better about going outside without dousing myself in DEET first.

But I also believe there's something else at work here, and that has to do with the power of focus. We human beings are composed of energy matter, and our thoughts and cognitions are an extension of that physical energy. So when we marshal our thought power around a particular event or idea or circumstance we are literally sending out electrical currents that contribute to the reality that we then perceive. (My apologies to the folks who might view this as a bunch of woo-woo mumbo jumbo...work with me here for a moment, OK?)

Author Julia Jablonski writes that, "Everything we experience in 'reality' has its beginnings in the non-physical. Every thought we think is a seed. Every time we think the same thought over and over again, we water that seed. When we think such a thought with emotion, we fertilize it. The more intense our desire or fear regarding such a thought, the more likely it is to come into our experience, and the faster it will manifest."

Translated: We get what we focus on. It may look like an answer to a prayer, or a hypochondriac who eventually gets really sick, or a ghetto kid who grows up to be a hero because someone believed in him and constantly reminded him of his potential. The point is, our reality is largely a function of how we view the world and where we focus our attention.

Now, this is good news. Because although the six o'clock headlines would have us focus on scandal and tragedy and the other sensationalistic stuff that sells, it also means that we have the choice to devote our thought power to what we want rather than what we don't want. We can focus on scarcity and corporate greed and crimes of violence, or we can focus on abundance and the goals we're passionate about and kids who turn out great and world peace. I know where I'd rather spend my productive thinking time. How about you?
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Words to live by:
"If you've lost focus, just sit down and be still. Take the idea and rock it to and fro. Keep some of it and throw some away, and it will renew itself. You need do no more."
- Clarissa Pinkola Estes

"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."
- Mark Twain

"My thoughts before a big race are usually pretty simple. I tell myself: 'Get out of the blocks, run your race, stay relaxed. If you run your race, you'll win... channel your energy. Focus."
- Carl Lewis

"Only one thing has to change for us to know happiness in our lives: where we focus our attention."
- Greg Anderson