Focus: In Running & Life

I happened to pick up an article today at lunch on Scott Jurek from a year ago. As it turned out, it was the somewhat infamous King of Pain article, which I had never read.

The underlying theme of the article was focus. Having it, losing it, and trying to regain it. It was a topic I could appreciate as I've been having trouble with my own focus lately. 

Focus is important in running. A loss of focus is a factor in non-running mind. Focus is what got me through my 400+ miles in February. The lack of focus, and an ensuing breakdown in mental discipline, I have determined to be the core of my letdown in Moab. I felt a slipping of my focus this past weekend at the Horsetooth Half. I've even felt the loss of focus recently in my professional work.

So, I've lost my focus, now what do I do about it? There are a few things that I find to be important to regaining focus, as I've had to do before. Or perhaps they're all different facets of one thing. 

The first thing is, as the song says, to accentuate the positive. Find those elements in life that bring focus to your life. If you've wandered away from those things, bring them back, but be careful of overdoing it.

Second, eliminate the negative. Are there specific things that are distracting you or breaking your focus? Find ways to deal with them, whether that's moving away from them or integrating them more healthfully into your life or some other approach.

Third, and probably most important, is balance. For me, life cannot be one completely driven, focused action. To focus well, I need parts of my life to be unfocused as balance to the focus.

This is all common sense stuff of course, but sometimes I find it helpful to go over the basics in order to move forward.

The positive: running is a great focus for me. It's there, it's trying to do its thing, but stuff is getting in the way. The negative: there's a lot of stress built up over my performance in Moab. This is making me more stressed about my upcoming events and compounding itself.

What drove the loss of focus at Moab itself though? Balance. Rather, imbalance. I don't think I gave myself the mental break after February that I needed. After a month of real intense mental and physical focus, I didn't really let up. The physical tension I've felt lately is mirrored mentally. I need to take time to relax mentally.

Another important element here is the realization that I've simply taken on too much lately. I've kept myself so busy that finding time to unwind simply hasn't happened.

The prescription? Simplify. Cut back some of the clutter that's getting in the way. Then take that free time and keep it free. Goof off, relax, unwind, and give myself the mental break that I need.

And try not to think about what will happen if I don't get that focus back in time for the Leadman.