It’s not enough talked about, but the ability to consistently will yourself to focus on the things that you want to learn about or improve upon is one of the best superpowers you can have.

Not only does focus enable you to utilize more of your brain in order to better encode memories and comprehend new information, but it also allows you to follow things through to completion—a skill that is vital and oftentimes lacking in our world.

I used to teach drums and the skill I would most instill upon my students was that of focus. You can practice for ten hours a day, but if it isn’t focused practice, it’s not very effective and can even be counterproductive. Also, if you have the ability to play ten hours a day, that’s evidence that you are probably not very focused on what you’re doing.

Focus saps your mental strength, which is probably the main reason why so many people avoid it. Much like learning a new skill, intense focus is mentally tough and can make your head (literally) hurt. The beauty, however, of this phenomenon is that it is proof that it’s working; your best learning will be done when it feels the hardest.

You aren’t putting on muscle if you aren’t putting strain on them while you work out. If you’re lifting 1lb dumbbells, you’re getting little to no benefit. The exact same is true of your brain. If you’re trying to learn a new skill and you aren’t challenging yourself, you’re likely not learning a whole lot, or at least not as much as if you push yourself. 

I believe it’s best to impose the zone of proximal development on yourself (or have someone else impose it on you) in any area where you’re trying to grow. That’s what I did with my drum students, and that’s what I try to do to myself.

Here are my three tenets of focus:

1. You become what you focus on. Your focus encompasses your time, so choose your focus wisely and judiciously apply your time to it.
2. Do one thing at a time. Your brain can’t multi-task, so stop trying to force it. You are not “optimizing” anything by splitting your time. Especially at times when you’re trying to improve, memorize, and learn, it’s vitally important to focus in the moment on one thing at a time.
3. Remove distractions. Focus all of your senses as much as you can on whatever you’re learning or practicing. Anything that doesn’t serve your purposes will instead be a distraction and thus a barrier to your progress. Make your environment as distraction-free as possible. The key is devoting as much of your faculties as you can to the thing on which you’re focusing.

Focus is a skill that can be improved upon with practice and will atrophy without sufficient use. The more you tailor your attention to one thing at a time and remove peripheral attention away from things that aren’t beneficial, the stronger your ability to focus will become.

It will take some time to improve your focusing ability, but it is well worth it and will give you a huge advantage above your past self and other people. If you can hyperfocus at will and you’re up against a person or people who are slaves to their distractions, it’s not even a competition. This is true in any situation: martial arts, sports, business, work, language, or anywhere else.

“Lock in,” as the kids say.

Now that you’re a master of focus, you can use your newfound superpower to approach mastery. The beauty of this is that it is entirely up to you what you want to do with it.

Recently, a couple of my coworkers asked me “Would you rather be moderately proficient at everything, but a master of nothing, or be intensely proficient at one thing and bad at everything else? [Heavily paraphrased].”

This question was asked at a great time, because I had recently heard of the “T-Shaped” view of mastery in a Huberman Labs podcast. I resonate with the idea and subscribe to its implications. 

It’s a very simple idea. This diagram from https://treinetic.com clearly shows how it works:

My first response was, “It depends on the situation. What’s the context?” They refused to give it, and wanted a general response. There is no right answer there. Context is always important. I then explained the T-Shaped model to them as my general approach.

In any case, the beauty of the T-Shaped model is that it contains the best of both worlds and is entirely practical. I believe that everyone should round out their skill set and their knowledge. However, I also believe that everyone should have at least one area in which they are masterful. Whatever you’re most interested in, you should learn to be either very knowledgeable or very proficient at doing things in that field (I’d aim for both).

Personally, I have multiple interests and multiple levels of proficiency within those interests. I am likely most proficient at drumming as I’ve spent the most time and effort, and have devoted the most focus towards it. (See?! I told you it was important!)

I expect that eventually my field of most mastery will shift towards counseling once I begin to sink my time and focus into that instead. Of course, it’s not a perfect T shape, and my drumming ability won’t sink down to a basal level with the improvement of my counseling abilities. But, the idea of focusing on one field in order to master it will still expand the height of my T.

I’ll emphasize that the T-Shape isn’t strictly accurate, but it provides a healthy visualization of how you can treat your knowledge base and skill set. Not only do you want to heighten the base of your T with increased mastery, but you also want to expand the head by widening your range of skills and knowledge.

I believe that mastery is important for several reasons.

1. You’re devoting your time, effort, and focus toward something very important to you. This gives intrinsic meaning to your efforts which can also easily be made extrinsic as well. Devoting yourself to your work gives you a reason to get out of bed in the morning and put in hard work.
2. Eventually you’ll be able to produce higher quality work in whatever field your mastery resides. For me, I can produce better drumming. This not only means a lot to me, but it also allows me to play with other people and to potentially monetize my ability. Some masteries can be used to help and serve others.
3. Following this, mastery of any type is typically monetizable, especially with use of the internet. If you’re a master at any one thing you can typically find a way to make money from it by selling goods and/or services online, whether it’s physical, educational, entertainment, or otherwise. Depending on your mastery, this may not necessarily become your career (and you might not want it to), but it is worth considering using your skills or knowledge to produce wealth.
4. Let’s be honest: do you really want to be mediocre at everything? I strongly believe that you need at least one area where you feel confident. This gives you self-efficacy which is necessary for a healthy outlook on your life. Everyone is bad at something when they first start, but through time, effort, focus, and practice mastery can be achieved.
5. It’s exciting! You may not realize it, but every day you’re improving. This produces many healthy operations in your brain and body. You never know what you’ll be capable of achieving in the future, and this anticipation (dopamine) keeps you motivated. There’s no limit to the unrealized potential within you. Keep going and don’t stop. 

TIP: Track your progress. With every day, you improve more than you realize. Without a consistent measure to see how far you’ve come, you may not understand the depth of your improvement. Staying motivated is highly important, and seeing tangible results is key to maintaining motivation.

Focus is incredibly important. Improve your focusing abilities by imposing your attention on one thing at a time, and keep pushing. Concurrently, you’ll be strengthening your mastery in whatever domain you’re practicing as well as generally improving your ability to focus for the future. Slow down, make a plan, and put in the work. If you can’t focus, take a break and come back to it. Never underestimate the (super)power of focus.