Focus On Where You Want to Go

As an avid mountain biker I have learned that the most important skill is to focus on where you want to go, not on the rock that you want to avoid.  This is one of the reasons that I like mountain biking as much as I do.  When I am out on the trail I have to let go of all the other things that are going on in my life and focus on the here and now.  I can not be distracted because to avoid ending up with dented helmets and a broken collar bone I have to focus on the “line” or path that I want my bike to travel.

Sometimes the path you need your tire to take is just barely larger than tire it self, and when you are riding along at 20 miles per hour you really do not have a lot of time to think.  Once I learned to focus on the path I needed to travel I became a stronger mountain biker and found that I was much less likely to hits the rocks that I needed to avoid. The opposite is still true, every time that I focus on the obstacle that is in my way I hit it.  These are not usually glancing blows, but straight on collisions with the items that I new I needed to avoid.

This same theory is true in life.  I have found that I have to focus on the path that I want to travel and not on all the obstacles or hurdles that stand in between me and where I want to be.  Our minds are extremely powerful machines and when we focus on the goal or objective we want to achieve, our minds will work faster than we can think to help take us there.  Many of the obstacles we hit along the way could be avoided if we focused on the path we want to take, or at least their impact on our trajectory towards achievement could be minimized.

Now I still hit rocks when I ride my bike, and I usually have at lease one good crash a year. This is just like the project or goal that has challenges you need to overcome, they will always be there.  A strong focus will make sure that you get to the desired outcome with a minimum about of pain.