High performance demands extraordinary focus. How? Start with Charlie Munger's reminder, "Invert, Always Invert."
What is the opposite of focus? The opposite is distraction. The world surrounds us with distraction - cellphones, streaming media, social media, television, and more.
Read about focus here.
As coaches and life-long learners, where should we focus?
1. Culture
Our middle school team culture had three "narrow-focus" priorities:
- Teamwork "It's the scoreboard not the scorebook."
- Improvement. "Get better today."
- Accountability. "Hold ourselves to high standards."
Winning was not the top priority. But from the two three-year groups of middle school players coached, we've had two in state championship games during the past three years. They learned how to play and how to win.
2. Mindset
- Hard work builds success. "Do unrequired work."
- Adopt good ideas from all around us. "Good artists borrow, great artists steal - Picasso"
- Study greatness (players, coaches, systems). Some rubs off.
3. Process
- Build and track habits. "We make habits; habits make us."
- Obsess preparation and skill development "Obsess the product." - Sara Blakely
- Find mentors.
- Use Pomodoro technique (25 minutes on, 5 off). Focus fatigues.
- Have a mindfulness practice, proven to improve focus.
Embrace culture, mindset, and process.
Lagniappe. Timed multi-level shooting drill that extends some of the "30 buckets" drill that we ran for mid-range shooting.
