Our eyes have come a long way from what they were just a mere 500+ million years ago. Surprisingly, they were a lot better millions of years ago too. And we can blame adventurous water-dwelling creatures, like the tiktaalik, that chose to brave dry land for that.
Look, I’m sure everyone is grateful for the eyes they do have. But, what really is weird to think is that not only do humans see everything upside down before our brain flips it around, we really can only see the tiniest amount of light in what is known as the electromagnetic spectrum.
Pretty lame, right?
In fact, our eyes are so lame that we even have a blind spot in each of them that is practically right in front of our vision.
Seriously.
Don’t believe me? You can see so for yourself.
Right now, close your right eye and focus on a small object that is right in front of you with your left eye. Now hold up your left thumb with your arm outstretched and fixate it in front of the object.
From there, move your hand slowly to the left staying focused on the object until your thumb disappears completely from view.
You will see that there is only a small section in your view where your thumb isn’t present. But can easily be seen again when you move your hand a fraction more to the left, or a fraction back towards the object.
Can you imagine if you bought a camera that produced these kinds of photos?
You’d take it back, right?
We always have this blind spot in our vision, but our brain manages to fill in the gaps.
And apart from our brain and eye combo performing this particular feat, it’s also capable of adapting to things that are right in front of our face like our nose or even glasses.
Think about it, these objects are always literally right in front of our eyes, but our brain manages to pretty much desensitize us from them so that they seem to not obscure our view.
Pretty cool.
How smart.
Gestalts Laws of Perceptual Organization are good examples of how good our brains can actually be.
And The Law of Closure is one that demonstrates this perfectly.
With pictures like the one below, despite it not being complete, our brain is able to fill in the gaps, and is why we also can see a triangle, when it really is just three Pac-Man look-a-likes.
Another law known as The Law of Pragnanz relates to the circumstance when we group fractions of images together to form complete images like emoticons, and seeing faces on the surface of Mars.
Or even hidden in bigger pictures.
Our eyes and brain are pretty good at detecting things that aren’t even, well, things.
But what about things that are right in front of our eyes?
Hidden.
How many people have seen the Toblerone logo?
Probably almost everyone. But how many people have seen the bear that is drawn inside the mountain?
What about the LG logo? How many have seen that all it takes is to tilt it a little on its side, and move the “nose” to form Pac-Man?
Or what about the guy riding on the bike on the Tour de France logo?
(The front wheel is the orange dot).
As you can see, there definitely is a big difference between being aware and paying attention.
You might’ve been aware of all of these logos, but completely paying attention to every small detail would’ve resulted in you already knowing all of these hidden pictures.
But hey, I’m not trying to make you feel bad. It’s not a bad thing we don’t always see these types of things straight away.
A lot of the time, we simply don’t care for this kind of stuff and choose not to focus on every detail like on a logo, or even on the road when we just “quickly” check and reply to that text message.
Staying focused and paying attention is definitely a skill. A skill that requires focus.
But what is focus?
Focus.
Focus really is so critical when it comes to getting anything done and even achieving anything.
Agreed?
How many times have you sat down to get something done on the computer, but thought “well hey, I might as well check Facebook quickly”?
From pop-up ads to diverting links to your BFF’s updated profile pic, we have a lot of stuff at the ready that can easily distract us and steal our focus.
But it’s not always a matter of simply not having the ability to focus on tasks, but rather the ability to stay focused on the right things at the right times.
I always say it to my clients when they’re training. “Don’t just do the exercise, but feel and do the movement.”
What about you?
When you’re performing a short 10-rep set that lasts for less than 60 seconds (or, 0.0007% of your entire day), how focused are you?
Is your mind thinking and feeling out each and every single movement, or is it a hundred miles away and thinking about the bills that need to be paid (that you can’t pay at that very moment), that fight at work with your boss (that you can’t deal with at that very moment), or if Sally will ever return to Summer Bay (most likely)?
What about in your entire workout? Are you completely focused or are you checking your phone in between sets?
The present.
Thinking too far ahead or back in time is one of the key reasons for a lapse in focus. Being present in life completely in the now is how to go about getting a lot more out of what you are doing.
I’m sure you can agree.
However, being distracted from tasks and things in life that will get you to where you want and what you want isn’t always your fault.
You see, you might not have ever been shown the strategies that will put you on the path correctly to say; lose weight, build muscle or simply just to feel better about yourself.
It’s sometimes as simple as being shown the strategies that can aid you with your desire to get and keep focused on getting what you want.
Since, at the end of the day, you already have the ability. So when you’re shown the strategy, you’re bound to get results.
There really is no point in just dreaming and wishing about getting somewhere without putting in play strategies that put you on a focused path to success.
Strategies.
I talked about the whole ‘writing down your goals’ thing in Chapter 10 of Game Changers (which is free completely from this website, by the way), so I won’t go on about it again. But this really is, what I find to be, one of the best strategies that keeps you driven and focused.
By making things solidified on paper and even telling your friends and family what you want to achieve, it makes achieving those things a lot more… achievable.
But what to do about those people that always try to put you down or send you those negative vibes about what you want to do?
Use it as fuel.
I’m sure at some stage of your life you’ve been made to feel guilty for choosing the smarter option when you’re out with your friends for dinner. Or even made to feel guilty that you want to get up early on a Sunday and train. “You’re obsessed, just relax”.
Yeah, that actually happens.
Their attempt at guilt-tripping you is merely just their attempt at keeping themselves from not being guilty at the thought of how focused you are on achieving your goals.
Kinda ironic, right?
Kinda sad too, though.
But, what’s really sad are the people with all those dreams and wishes that don’t and won’t ever get to live it.
Every single person has the ability to achieve anything they want in life. It just takes the right strategy and the right amount of focus to get it done.
And when and if the haters do come-a-knockin’, use their guilt, discouraging thoughts and comments as fuel to focus you for your success.