November 12, 2025 | Tagged Skills,
What is focus and how can I get more?
"Focusing on one thing without interruption is how you get meaningful work done.” ~ Nate Green
What is focus?
Focus began as a word to mean fireplace and the focal point of a room. A place where people gather and the centerpiece of the home.
Focus has come to mean your ability to pay attention to the task at hand without distraction. It’s your ability to filter out anything that pulls your attention away and limits the full force of your mental acumen, intensity, and care.
Why focus matters?
When we are distracted whether while working, studying, playing, driving, or even in conversation with others, we perform poorly which can sometimes dramatically impact our lives.
Identify the most distracted aspect of your life and you will reveal the area most in trouble, challenge, or difficulty.
Focused attention will achieve your greatest output, your most valiant effort and communicate to those important to you your level of care and connection.
What distracts us and how can we become more focused?
Take a quiet moment with a journal and spend time with each category.
Environment
How distracting is your environment with noise, ability to be still, detach from social media, TV, loud music, internet, constant pulls and tugs at your time and attention?
What are a few easy changes you could make?
Emotional Distress: grief, stress, fear, resentment, constant pleasure seeking
How much emotional distress are you under that pulls you out of the present into reminiscence, anxiety, or need to comfort and sooth yourself?
What is one healthy habit you could add to your life:
- Read or play a game instead of TV
- Walk or work out instead of eating food for comfort
- Only check social media during a specific time of the day
- Journal, attend a grief group, connect with a counselor or pastor
- Take a nap, do one less activity, cut obligations
- Ask for help
Emergencies and challenges
When you meet an emergency, challenge, difficulty, or problem you will need more time, more sleep, more mentoring, and more help. Anger becomes a tool because it is an energizer. We can get so much accomplished when we are angry. Players who play better while angry are using it as an energy booster. But anger causes more problems than it solves.
The best tool when facing emergencies or challenges is gratitude. It is the hardest to pick up as it is so opposite from what you want to do. Start singing, write down 1-minute bursts of what you are thankful for, list things aloud. As you choose gratitude as the solution, your body moves out of cortisol and dangerous stress, and it moves out of choosing solutions that lead to more problems.
Gratitude is the greatest problem solver.
What can be a great go-to phrase for you when difficulty strikes? What is one quick discipline you can do each time? For example, at the NBC Camps office, our slogan when difficulty strikes is “Delight in Difficult” because we believe good things can come from challenges. Next, we circle together and acknowledge what we are grateful for and pray together. Our motto moving out of the circle is to “Operate from Peace.”
Educators/Mentors/Bosses
Teachers, mentors, friends, bosses, or family can unconsciously create a stressful drain that requires us to be constantly attentive to our phones, emails, etc. It can feel like we are always on call. This kind of constant vigilance, even if totally positive, drains our energy and diverts our attention.
What boundaries can you set to give yourself breaks from obligation to email, phones, or pressure to do something? Who can you ask to help you to get at least 20 minutes or a few small breaks per day?
About NBC Basketball Camps
NBC Basketball began in 1971 with the vision of a holistic training method teaching athletes about wellbeing mentally, physically, relationally and spiritually. For over 55 years, NBC Basketball Camps have been training students to succeed on and off the court. Find out more at www.nbccamps.com.