Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence

by Daniel Goleman

While the link between attention and excellence remains hidden most of the time, it ripples through almost everything we seek to accomplish.

All that can be boiled down to a threesome: inner, other, and outer focus. A well-lived life demands we be nimble in each. The good news on attention comes from neuroscience labs and school classrooms, where the findings point to ways we can strengthen this vital muscle of the mind. Attention works much like a muscle—use it poorly and it can wither; work it well and it grows.

Or as Yoda says, “Your focus is your reality.”

That focus in the midst of a din indicates selective attention, the neural capacity to beam in on just one target while ignoring a staggering sea of incoming stimuli, each one a potential focus in itself. This is what William James, a founder of modern psychology, meant when he defined attention as “the sudden taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one of what seems several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought.”

The dividing line between fruitless rumination and productive reflection lies in whether or not we come up with some tentative solution or insight and then can let those distressing thoughts go—or if, on the other hand, we just keep

The ability to stay steady on one target and ignore everything else operates in the brain’s prefrontal regions. Specialized circuitry in this area boosts the strength of incoming signals we want to concentrate on (that email) and dampens down those we choose to ignore (those people chattering away at the next table).

Failure to drop one focus and move on to others can, for example, leave the mind lost in repeating loops of chronic anxiety.

The power to disengage our attention from one thing and move it to another is essential for well-being.

If you and a small toddler share attention toward something as you name it, the toddler learns that name; if her focus wanders as you say it, she won’t. When

Heidegger, were he alive today, would be horrified if asked to tweet.

On the other hand, another large group are stuck in the state neurobiologists call “frazzle,” where constant stress overloads their nervous system with floods of cortisol and adrenaline. Their attention fixates on their worries, not their job. This emotional exhaustion can lead to burnout.

When top soccer players raced a ball around and through a line of traffic cones—and had to notice which side of their foot was controlling the ball—they made more errors.

“When the coach reviews plays from a game and only focuses on what not to do next time, it’s a recipe for players to choke.”

“New ideas won’t appear if you don’t have permission within yourself,”

But once we’ve hit upon a great creative insight, we need to capture the prize by switching to a keen focus on how to apply it. Serendipity comes with openness to possibility, then homing in on putting it to use.

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant,” Albert Einstein once said. “We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”12

But, as we’ve seen, if you ask people, “Are you thinking about something other than what you’re currently doing?” the odds are fifty-fifty their minds will be wandering.1

When we turn such full attention to our senses, the brain quiets its default chatter.