Focus - Ears

This week's component of focus is about focusing our ears.

There is a difference between hearing and listening.  Webster's defines "to hear" as "to perceive or apprehend by the ear" and "to listen" as "to hear something with thoughtful attention : give consideration".

You can hear without listening.  Hearing is an automatic process that occurs when sound enters your ear canal.  It requires no activity on your part, and unless you try to make sense of the sounds, has no meaning to you.  Listening requires, once the sound has entered your ear, that you process the sound into ideas and concepts, and eventually understanding. 

You are assaulted by sound from many different sources for most of your lives.  In order to listen to something, you must first identify the source, and then focus your attention on what you are hearing.  Only then can you actually listen.  You can hear without listening, but you cannot understand without listening.

Listen to advice and receive discipline, that you may become wise by the end of your life. - Proverbs 19:20

Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to the words of knowledge. - Proverbs 23:12

Do you hear or do you listen?

Focus - Eyes

In karate, as in life, the first and most basic of rules is "Pay Attention."  You have to be focused on your surroundings, people around you, your instructors, or you will walk into trouble.  The next few weeks, I'll be posting a little bit that I've learned about focus.

In Proverbs, Solomon says: "Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you."

At Waxahachie Karate, we say the same when we say that we keep our eyes "on target."   In the dojo, of course, our target is whatever we're aiming to hit - focus pads, body pads, opponents.  If you are not looking at your target, you can't hit it (and, conversely, you can get hit).

In life, our targets are our goals.  Often, we lose track of those targets when we become distracted by the pleasures, pressures, wants, and needs of the world around us.  We allow our eyes to wander off target, and we spend all of our energy chasing things that take us farther and farther away from our target.  Eventually, we can end up feeling like we got punched in the head and wondering how we ended up where we are.

Focus is a constant effort.  Once we've decided what our goals or targets are, we have to consciously, constantly compare what we're doing with what will help us achieve our goal for the day, for the month, for the year, and for our lives.  "Fix your gaze directly before you."

What are you focused on today?

ACCURACY

"definition: conformity to truth or to a standard or model" - Merriam-Webster Dictionary

We are either accurate or inaccurate every day of our lives - all day long.  In our speech, in our actions, in our thoughts.  We are either conforming or not conforming.  We either do or do not use correct grammar when we talk to someone.  We go along with the crowd, or we stand apart.  We pattern our thoughts after what we learn, or we choose a different path.

As a martial artist, your truth or standard may be, "Did I hit what I wanted to hit, where I wanted to hit it?"  If the answer is "No" then you did not conform to the techniques you were taught and may get hit in return.

What is your truth or standard in the rest of your life?

Opening Post

Starting this week, I will begin posting updates, news, practical applications of what we are learning in class at home, and various other ideas that come up.  Please check back on Mondays and Thursdays for updates.

Thank you for reading,

Layne