Nerves of steel, iron concentration: Anyone wanting to maintain focus over time needs to be strong, show endurance. That’s what we learned. But what happens when concentration slips through your hands like the steel cable you’re trying to grip? Then focus is gone. Takes forever to get a firm hold again.
That’s the problem right there.
You can’t hold concentration through pure willpower. You concentrate best when you keep losing concentration. How’s that work? You’re using far too much energy trying to hold onto focus. Concentrate, but don’t grasp. When you notice concentration has wandered off, breathe and pick it up again.
Simple as that.
Concentration is like meditation: constant losing and finding. That’s exactly what you can practise. To an outsider, it looks like you have iron concentration. Really, you’re losing it repeatedly and patiently picking it back up. The faster you notice when focus has drifted, the better you become.
You don’t need to be a concentration monster. It’s enough to practise the losing and finding.
This started life in German on reinergaertner.de, my blog since 1997. The English version was AI-assisted. My German-trained eyes may have missed a few things along the way. She’ll be right.