Let’s talk about focus.
It’s easy to get distracted by what’s happening around you. Maybe people are getting preferential treatment.
Aside from you only being able to control so much, you worrying about what somebody else is doing can have a real negative impact on your performance.
When we were in taekwondo this (the same session I wrote about a couple of days ago), something else interesting happened.
But first some context. The way this academy is setup is quarterly curriculum with month 1 focused on forms, month 2 focused on sparring/self-defense and month 3 focused on forms and then a test for the next belt (this Friday!).
In month 1, I was feeling confident in my technique so far, giving some major Daniel-san vibes. Last week, though, I found myself stumbling and making mistakes I wasn’t making before when working in a bigger group.
I’m an analytical person, so I did a mini postmortem on my showing when I got back in the car:
- I was so focused on keeping pace with everyone else, I sacrificed technique for speed
- I let other people’s mistakes cause me to hesitate while executing the forms
The solution to both of these? Focus.
When it comes to advancing in your career, you know the best thing you can do? You guessed it…focus.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be aware of what’s happening around you (same as making sure you don’t accidentally punch or kick a classmate), but you don’t want to get flustered by outside influences.
So it also goes with your career.
Trust me. I’ve tried the alternative.
If you’re interested in learning from other mistakes I’ve already made so you don’t have to, check this out:
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