Guy Reams (00:01.132)
This is day 55, everything but the root cause. There is an interesting thing that happens as we deal with the inability to concentrate. This is a common issue that people face all the time. Everyone grapples at one time or another with an inability to stay focused. Even the most razor-tuned workaholics experience these bouts. No one is immune.
I have talked this week about things we can do to resolve this issue and regain concentration once it lost. The most important consideration is that concentration is something that has to be worked on in terms of improving the skill of removing distractions from your life. However, there is one elephant in the room, so to speak. Oftentimes, there is a significant and real reason for your distractions.
And that is the root cause of your inability to concentrate. I mean, this could be a problem in your life, a troubling relationship, a bad habit, you know, something that's causing you to be distracted in life that's just causing you harm. We usually know what this is. It is obvious and it is something we think about all the time.
Yet for some reason we will spin our wheels and work on a myriad of other things instead of dealing with the root cause. This is usually because we are conflicted internally and we just do not want to make a tough decision. So we continuously avoid the single greatest thing that is impacting our ability to be effective.
Just a story. I had a salesperson on one of my teams several years ago who was a really good salesperson. They were one of the most, you know, friendly, charismatic salespeople I've ever met. However, his performance was really not doing well at all. He just was not selling anything. And he just was not having success. He could no longer
Guy Reams (02:11.158)
stay focused on the things that were important or the things that he used to do to be successful. This entire time that he was struggling, he had developed a very bad addicting habit to a drug. And he was abusing that drug significantly. And so much so that he was doing so every night and waking up every day really exhausted and tired because he'd been up all night.
you know, under the influence of this narcotic. So he was working on all these things to try to improve his productivity as a salesperson. Yet the one thing that was causing the greatest harm was this addiction. And he did not want to deal with it. Luckily, he finally realized that this was an issue and he dealt with it head on, solved the problem, and he leads a pretty healthy life today.
But this is the point. Sometimes we have a favorite thing or something we're doing that is causing us harm and we don't want to deal with it. So as a consequence, that destroys all hope we have of concentration. So we continuously avoid the single greatest thing that is impacting our ability to be effective. I mean, just think about it. If you're having trouble at home, how could you ever concentrate?
person you love the most in your life, you're having a struggle in that relationship, how are you ever going to concentrate? How could you possibly focus on things when your most important relationship is at peril? So we ignore these things at our own peril, but we will persist this way for months and months at a time because of our unwillingness to address the root cause.
So this concept is very short and very clear. If you are having trouble concentrating, ask yourself a very honest question. Is there a single root cause that I'm highly aware of, but just unwilling to deal with? If the answer is yes, you might as well stop all other attempts at trying to concentrate and deal with the real issue as fast as you can. The sooner you rip the bandaid off, so to speak,
Guy Reams (04:36.332)
the sooner you can get back on being an effective person. There have been some times in my life where I have been guilty of this. And looking back, I'm amazed at how long I avoided the glaring and obvious issue. Now, luckily, I've never had a serious addiction problem. But I have had other problems. And the amount of energy that I spent dodging the real problem is laughable.
when I think of all the consternation I spent trying anything and everything except for dealing with the primary cause of my problems. So bottom line, deal with the root cause before you do anything else. If you cannot think of anything obvious, then yes, you should spend time figuring out ways to improve your ability to focus.