Simple Tricks to Increase and Adjust Focus for Lasting Success

I am always curious about what distinguishes successful people from others. I thought that if I could learn from their mindset, emulate their behavior, and adopt their habits, I would eventually reach the same results as they did.

They aren’t different from me. They may have a great network of knowledge and a lot of money, but we have the same mind, so I thought studying the lives of those successful would help change my thinking to reach the results I wanted in my life.

When I continued to study successful people I know personally, people who have lived in the past, and others who are widely known, I quickly realized the difference between those who achieve their goals and those who do not. It is all about two words, which are ‘adjust attention.’

Some people call it concentration:

For some, this may seem like a far-fetched trait to achieve a great deal of success in life, but I have discovered that almost every successful person has this unique characteristic.

The American industrialist Andrew Carnegie, one of the richest Americans in history, attributes his success to this particular quality. He worked in many sporadic jobs as an immigrant's son, and eventually he built one of the most successful business empires ever.

It has been said that government officials suspected him because of the speed with which he made his fortune, so the US Senate gave the order to question Andrew Carnegie. When the officials questioned him, Carnegie revealed his simple secret and said, "I can keep my mind focused on something for five consecutive minutes." Carnegie mastered the ability to keep his mind focused and attentive to start and complete the task completely without distraction.

This simple and deep answer makes a lot of sense:

If you can't focus your thoughts on the desired outcome, nothing can be advanced in life whether it's in maintaining your health, productivity, or wealth.

Dr. Angel Rivera wrote (Dr. Angel L. Rivera) in an article published on the Napoleon Hill Foundation website that adjusting and controlling attention is defined as "an act of coordinating all the capabilities of the mind and channeling its common power to a specific end. Also, it is an act that can only be achieved through the most extreme forms of self-discipline". He further writes that effective focus "requires attention to be focused, completely controlled, and directed towards a specific end.”

Whether it's about starting and finishing a task, paying full attention to someone else during a conversation, or even something as simple as sticking to one idea to the end, this is an advantage that all successful people have adopted.

You may ask yourself now how can I develop my attention and focus and direct my thoughts? With  all the distractions caused by social media and the demands of everyday life, it seems that focus is the last thing that our current society encourages, not to mention that our minds make up nearly 50% of our day, according to a recent study conducted by Harvard University.

If you do not feel that you have this trait now or feel that you need more of it to accomplish your goals and tasks, stay with me. Science concludes that focus and attention is a skill that can be learned.

Dr. and Professor of Psychology Amishi Jha discusses (Dr. Amishi Jha) in her book (Peak Mind) that by investing only 12 minutes a day for five days a week, you can increase your attention and work memory with a simple exercise of mindfulness. So, for a simple investment of your time, you can make a lot of money in almost every area of your life.

If you are looking for some other tricks to keep your focus, here are some of them:

1. Getting rid of distractions:

Before starting any task, you have to prepare your environment for success to reduce the possibility of distracting you by setting your devices all to "Do not disturb" mode, putting your phone in another room, or getting up early before anyone else starts accomplishing any task. I personally have to put my phone in another room sometimes because I will unconsciously pick it up and start browsing social media, which eventually distracts me from the task I am doing, so setting up your space and arranging it to get rid of distractions is a great way to pave your way to success.

2. Taking short breaks:

Working for a long period of time can limit our focus, so taking short breaks is an excellent way to alleviate this problem. I usually work for 30 minutes without any distractions, then I give myself a short break of 5 minutes to spend either snacking or looking outside the window, as it clears my mind. After the break is over and back to work, I feel refreshed, relaxed and more focused.

3. Exercise:

Most of us attribute the health benefits that our bodies gain to the exercise we do, yet there is a lot of research that proves that doing exercise has a major role in improving our overall mental health, which includes our focus and productivity. When I have a task that requires my full attention, I usually schedule my task immediately after the exercise. This simple trick has accelerated my productivity in all tasks and goals.