The Power of Mental Focus and How to Improve Yours!

How important is Mental Focus?

How many times have you decided to read a book and only read a few pages before losing focus? Or how many times have you decided to do something challenging, but in the tedious process, you lose interest halfway?

This is very common for most people, including myself. Our attention span keeps getting lower and lower.

We are now at a point where, no matter how important something is, if it is boring and tedious, most of us cannot get it to 100% unless it is something we have no other choice but to complete—something like a job where we know if we don’t finish it, we could get fired.

I think this is one of the major issues preventing many of us from getting ahead.

We just can’t do something boring and tedious if we don’t have to, even if we know that boring and tedious thing has the potential to make a significant impact on our lives.

That is why mental focus is so important—maybe more important than we realize.

How I Improve My Mental Focus

Personally, I am always open to doing the hard things, doing things that most people avoid if they don’t have to, but I still struggle with mental focus in other areas of my life, such as social conversations. I easily lose focus in a social conversation and either get into my phone or start thinking about other things.

I made a conscious decision to improve my mental focus, and I did some research on how to do that. I figured out one of the best ways to improve mental focus.

And that is through reading and writing.

When I figured that out, I decided to force myself to read just one book. I didn’t make any plans to read a certain number of books in a specific timeframe—I just wanted to read one book, and that was it.

And luckily for me, I got one of the most interesting books I have ever read as my first book: The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene.

The initial goal was to force myself to read, but it turned out I didn’t have to force myself. The book is about the core of human nature/human psychology, and I found that topic very interesting. Even though the book is not small, I finished it within a few days, and that got me into reading books.

I am glad I read my first book, and I am glad I started with a book on a topic I was interested in.

Reading books not only helped me with my mental focus, but it also helped me write well and become a better communicator in general.

One of my friends recently saw some new books I bought and said, “I don’t have enough discipline to read these kinds of big books.” I responded to him with, “It’s not about discipline. I just figured out what I was missing by not reading books.”

It’s not a coincidence that most successful people we know read books, and they all advise the younger generation to read some books.

Here is my recommendation for you if you are wondering what book you should start with:

📗 Mastery by Robert Greene

This book will teach you how to be the boss or the master in your field. It will take you through examples of some of the masters in their fields and the process they followed to get there.

📘 Atomic Habits by James Clear

This book will teach you how to make small changes in your habits that can make a big difference. It will also help you get over bad habits through practical strategies.

📕 Goals by Brian Tracy

This book will help you understand the importance of setting goals, how to set the right goals, and what you can do to improve your chances of reaching them.

Based on the short details above, make a decision on what book you want to start with. Focus on reading just that one book from beginning to end. When you finish it, then you can decide whether you want to read more books or if reading books is not for you.

Let me know which book you are going to start with. And if you already read books, let me know your suggestion for a book that a beginner to reading should start with.

Cheers to having sharp mental focus 🥂