Curious about Concentration: How Effective Are You at Concentration? How Has It Helped You as an Entrepreneur and Independent Professional?

“Concentration is my motto - first honesty, then industry, then concentration.” - Andrew Carnegie, American businessman

This past weekend, I experienced a five hour round trip to and from an excellent seminar. Besides the information and motivation experienced at this event, I also benefited from my university on wheels (yes, my car). I listened to CDs of the book, The Secret Law of Attraction as explained by Napoleon Hill.

The compiler shared information from two of Hill’s works, The Law of Success and Think and Grow Rich.

So much great information! And, even though I have read it all before, I still find or re-evaluate the golden nuggets. The theme of “Concentration” jumped out at me immediately. Because I have so many careers/businesses and multiple interests, I must sometimes force myself to concentrate on one area at a time.

Hill writes, “Your ability to use the principle of autosuggestion (often called affirmations today) will depend, very largely, upon your capacity to concentrate upon a given desire until that desire becomes a burning obsession.” He also admonishes us to, “Concentrate all your efforts on one definite chief aim.”

Do you find that with the plethora of great learning opportunities that concentration can be a challenge? I know that it is for me, and that when I pick a theme for my blog and e-newsletters, I learn about and focus on the knowledge found in quotations from the experts.

So here are some for you to consider (notice that several come from successful athletes):

• “Concentration and mental toughness are the margins of victory.” - Bill Russell, American athlete
• “When you write down your ideas you automatically focus your full attention on them. Few if any of us can write one thought and think another at the same time. Thus a pencil and paper make excellent concentration tools.” - Michael LeBoeuf, American businessman
• “My concentration level blocks out everything. Concentration is why some athletes are better than others. You develop that concentration in training and concentrate in a meet.” - Edwin Moses, American athlete
• “Mental attitude and concentration are the keys to pitching.” - Ferguson Jenkins, Canadian athlete
• “Concentration is the ability to think about absolutely nothing when it is absolutely necessary.” - Ray Knight, American athlete
• “Ninety percent of my game is mental. It's my concentration that has gotten me this far.” - Chris Evert, American athlete

And a few with a different twist:

• “I worked with such concentration and focus and I had hundreds of obscure engineering or programming things in my head. I was just real exceptional in that way.” - Steve Wozniak, American businessman
• “The degree of freedom from unwanted thoughts and the degree of concentration on a single thought are the measures to gauge spiritual progress.” - Ramana Maharshi, Indian philosopher
• “The five essential entrepreneurial skills for success are concentration, discrimination, organization, innovation and communication.” - Michael Faraday, English scientist
• “If we know the divine art of concentration, if we know the divine art of meditation, if we know the divine art of contemplation, easily and consciously we can unite the inner world and the outer world.” - Sri Chinmoy, Indian philosopher
• “If you watch young children play, you will notice that they create games, characters, situations, whole worlds in which they immerse themselves with intense concentration.” - Daniel Greenberg, American educator
• “You get involved with a character after spending a long time waiting, and this demands a lot of energy and concentration.” - Catherine Deneuve, French actress

I am challenging you and myself to decide what my most important, definite chief aim will be for the next week (or month) and then using the power of concentration to make it happen.