Purposeful focus - yes, I'm starting this week's reflection with exactly the same words as last week's in the hope that you're getting an incredibly simple and incredibly powerful message - is something you choose to do to yourself, for yourself. It won't creep up on you by accident, nor is it remotely related to your latent entropic state of mind (left to its own devices, research shows that your mind will degenerate into a negative jibbering idiot within the space of a few hours). Purposeful focus is something you work at, possibly, every day of your life.

As the phrase suggests, it comes in two parts: purpose and focus. Today's Quick Tip suggests that you only do what you had planned to do today - with the rider that what you'd planned to do is in line with your objectives. But, I know people who go into important meetings with no idea of what they want out of them. I know people who embark on major initiatives similarly blindfolded. Don't be surprised by this: research in the 1980s discovered that 87% of Harvard students were pursuing their studies with no adequately formulated outcome in mind. Imagine going to Harvard without knowing why! Imagine what the poor (in every sense of that word) parents would think if, having forked out the fees, their little Johnny (or Mary!) was clueless when it came to knowing why they got up each morning (although some Johnnys and Marys don't get up 'til the afternoon!).

And, of course, I know lots of people who stumble out of bed, in a semi-comotose fashion, every morning without any notion of what they want out of the day. Again, don't be surprised, our super-evolved brain is designed to enable us make it through the day, full stop!

So, back to that wonderful phrase - purposeful focus. I hope that, through the videos (last week's and today's) you're beginning to get a feel for what focus in the moment involves - bearing in mind that focus in the moment is a bridge too far if you didn't focus your mind first thing in the morning. But, remember, focus in the moment only works if you know why you're focusing in the moment... what you want out of the moment. Without knowing why you're doing what you should be doing, Flow is actually more like Spill!!!

Tuesday February 24th, 2015 - Dublin

In today's Reflection opposite I've alluded to the research that suggests that the majority of third-level students, at least in one august seat of learning, don't know why they're going there. It puts me in mind of a conversation I had - admittedly over a couple of drinks - some years ago with a guy (who shall remain nameless) who was bemoaning the fact that, as things stood, he had made "nothing" out of his life - his words, not mine - a little like someone who tells you that they hate everything about their lives or that nobody loves them... a bit of exaggeration always delivers the desired dramatic effect.

Anyway, back to my boozing buddy who worked as a security guard - nothing wrong with that, but he thought there was. He had raged at his boss - and then at the HR Manager - that he should be promoted to Supervisor level because he had a university degree. He told me that he had been insulted by the HR Manager who had pointed out to him that the degree had been awarded twenty seven years ago and that it wasn't really relevant to the job he was now doing.

"What the hell do you mean by that?" my friend asked "What has a degree in art and Spanish got to do with patrolling a building?" came the reply!