Live today as if you were fetching a ball. Part 2
Today while I was playing fetch with my dog, I could not help but be distracted. Our living community was having an advertised neighborhood rummage sale, the local middle school was having PE class outside at the park where we were at, and the two houses closest to us were both under construction! To me, it was a loud and busy scene, but not to my dog, Nitschke.
Every time I threw the ball, he sprinted to get it as fast as he could and returned it without getting sidetracked. It didn’t matter that the grass was too long or that all of those other things were happening outside of his line of vision. He was so focused on retrieving the ball that nothing else seemed to matter.
I wish I was more like that, that I could just tune everything out, focus on the task at hand and avoid the temptation of checking my cell phone every time I hear a ping or feel a vibration. Sound familiar? Rest assured, we are not alone. In fact, a study by Harvard concluded that every seven to eight seconds, our minds drift elsewhere and that a whopping 46% of the time, we are thinking about something other than what we are actually doing.
The concept of mindfulness is defined as the non-judgmental focus on one’s attention to the present moment (Kabat-Zinn, 1993). Unlike his/her counterpart, a mindful person is better able to identify what to focus on and sustain his/her focus throughout the activity. Mindfulness can be trained/enhanced through training. By simply engaging in daily meditation, a person can become more mindful, instead of having a mind-full!
Coach Nelson holds a doctorate in sport and performance psychology and currently serves as a high school football coach, trainer for the positive coaching alliance (PCA) and adjunct faculty member at Grand Canyon University. He has worked for multiple professional sport franchises, a Fortune 100 Company, a division 1 athletic departments and has won numerous awards for his LEADership abilities.
His mission is to positively influence the world through Love, Effort, Attitude and Discipline (#LEAD). To learn more about the LEAD philosophy follow him on Twitter Levi Nelson or reach out via email at rln10@zips.uakron.edu He’d love to learn about or help you in your journey!
PCA: https://www.positivecoach.org/team/nelson-levi/
References
Kabat-Zinn, J. (1993). Mindfulness meditation: Health benefits of an ancient Buddhist practice. In Goleman, D. & Garin, J. (Eds.), Mind/Body Medicine. Yonkers, NY: Consumer Reports.
