the power of unwavering focus - notes

 There's a book I picked so I can learn about focus because I believe focus can help in life.

It clearly says that this book is useless if it is not practiced

The book is in 4 parts:

1. understanding purpose. and why behind focus.

2. working of the brain

3. how to focus

4. applying this knowledge in everyday settings

1. Purpose and Why

- Living a focused life or a purpose-focused life are both rewarding processes. So bottom line , learn to focus.

- Purpose is not the start of focus. You actually need to learn to focus to understand your purpose.

- Why : because happiness. getting goals done. death.

When people avoid the concept of death they pay more attention to short term things and lose track of long term things. 

- Construct a lifestyle based on your purpose and priorities where the by-product is happiness. 

Right way. consistency. Blind Obedience vs intelligent obedience.

Instead of asking 'what next?', go narrow and wide : mastering your tool.

Intention for reading this book - "

Pathologically oblivious to anything but the goal

If you could trust your mind it would tell you have three fries and then eat the salad, but the mind does not do that - it makes you want to eat the whole pack of fries. So you can't just trust your mind. You first train your mind, then you trust it.

Affirming positive statements, filtering negativity, meditate - healthier mind.

Practicing - without this no knowledge is useful.

Practicing the right thing is important. 

The reason people abandon their quest is the anxiety and overwhelming feeling that arises out of lack of clarity. If you have a guide then it inspired confidence and makes things achievable.

Being faithful to small consistent steps is an expression of understanding, love and compassion towards the needs of mind and body.

While I appear as the teacher to you,  a student of the subject and I hope it always stays that way' - Lutzenkirchen

Three floors of the mind - 

Conscious, sub conscious, super conscious

The conscious needs to understand and organize what it gets so it can be absorbed by the subconscious. 

The definitions of mind and awareness are important - similar to Buddhist concepts. Feelings are like different rooms in the mind. Awareness is like a torchlight that we choose to throw the light on. That action of choosing which room to go to - needs thought and practice. 

You shouldn't say 'Mind is wandering'. Instead say, awareness is wandering. These words and clear definitions matter for your subconscious to have a clear framework.

There are three kinds of dogs(minds)

The one that wanders around untrained and unleashed , pouncing at anything and everything.

The one that is untrained but leashed - when it gets to a bad place, the owner is able to pull it back.

The trained one is like that of a police dog. It can have a plate of great food right below it's nose and it can be full of hunger but it will wait for the cue to feed. 

Another definition is 'energy' - where you put your energy has a magnetism - it becomes easy to access these circuits. Some of us store energy in certain events over decades because of unresolved situations. We replay the event and therefore energy gets assigned to it. It takes effort to decouple the energy.