The Mindset Mentor - How to Train Your Brain to Focus - TAKE ACTION PT.2

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Dial. And if you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so that you never miss another podcast episode. And if you love this podcast and you've gotten any value from anything that I've ever said, please do me a favor, go into iTunes or Apple Podcasts and give us a rating and review. Just so you know, every time we get a rating and review, it spikes us up in the algorithm so that more people can find us organically and that more people can listen to this podcast. So I'd greatly appreciate it if you would go to iTunes or Apple Podcasts and give us a rating and review. Today, we're going to be talking about how to bring intense focus to everything that you do. And this is episode number two on how to take

Starting point is 00:00:51 action. And if we can bring intense focus to everything that we do, it makes this much more easier for us to go out and actually take action. So in the last episode, we talked about the identity that you have of yourself and how to shift that. Today, we're going to talk about how to get intensely focused and how to understand how our brain and body both work together in order to actually make us focused or make us distracted. Because if you can understand how the brain and body work together, you can use them to your benefit, knowing that you're about to get intensely focused in what chemicals need to be released and what actions need to be taken in order to get there as well. So this is the reason why it's important. Understanding your brain, your body connection,

Starting point is 00:01:34 and how to use them. Know this, your brain is going to resist anything that is outside of its comfort zone or any new action. So if I'm laying on the couch and I know that I need to go type up a podcast episode and plan one out, my brain is naturally going to resist from going from one action that I've been doing for a while to another action that I have to start doing. There's going to be a resistance point switching from one thing to another. Just know that more than anything else. The reason why taking action is so hard a lot of times, why it's so hard for us to sit down and take action, why it's so hard for us to get focused is because we're really, really bad at focusing because we're masters of distraction. We have trained ourselves over years and years

Starting point is 00:02:26 and years and years to be distracted, not to be focused. So of course, it's easier for us to be distracted, but I'm going to teach you how to rewire that into your brain so that you can become much more focused. So, you know, I'll give you an example. Let's say you've never played basketball in your entire life, but you wake up today and you say, you know what? I'm going to quit my job. I'm going to focus on basketball and becoming the best basketball player I can possibly become. I'm going to put every single moment that I have besides sleeping, besides eating and going to the bathroom, 18 hours a day, 16 hours a day, whatever it is that I'm awake, I'm going to put that into playing basketball and trying to become better. Now, if you've never played basketball before, but you put 16 hours a day every single

Starting point is 00:03:10 day for the next year into playing basketball, don't you think you're going to be pretty damn good at basketball? Like you might not be LeBron James or Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant, but you're going to get really freaking good at playing basketball if you take the next year and focus on it for 16 hours a day, right? Why do I bring that up? Because we distract ourselves all day long. We're basically professionals at any sport, that level of distracting ourself. Why? We wake up, we check our emails, we check social media, we check text messages, we throughout the entire day are getting notifications. Then we have Netflix and we have music that's constantly playing and we have phone calls coming in and then we have more text messages. Then we check email again. Then

Starting point is 00:03:51 we check social media and we have so many social medias. So we're like, oh, I'm going to check my Instagram. I'm going to check my Facebook. I'm going to check my TikTok. I'm going to check my LinkedIn. I'm going to check YouTube. I'm going to check all of these. I'm going to check Snapchat, right? We have mastered the art of distraction. We spend the majority of our days distracting ourself. So why is it hard to focus? Because you're a freaking professional of distraction to yourself. So of course it's going to be hard to focus. Does it mean that focus is impossible? Absolutely not. It means that you're going to have to bring a lot of intention and focus to focusing, right? Like you're going to have to bring a lot of intention and focus to focusing, right?

Starting point is 00:04:25 Like you're going to have to literally go, you know what? It's the same as if I wanted to learn a sport and I wanted to master a sport. I want to master the art of focusing. What do I need to do to master the art of focusing? So let me tell you, let's dive into it. The first thing that you need to do in order to master the art of focusing is to find out for you what time of day is best. So everybody has different times of day where they are the most

Starting point is 00:04:52 focused. There's a lot of people, it's very early morning. I know some people that wake up at four o'clock in the morning and they get the best work of their lives done from four to 7.30. And then their family wakes up at 7.30 and they go on about their life. But they get three and a half hours of intense focus. That, it ain't me. I'm not intensely focused at 4 a.m. in the morning. For me, it's about 10 to 2 o'clock. Those are my most intensely focused times. 10 to 2 o'clock, I know I can be focused at those points. So whenever I need to get something very important done, it is in my schedule from 10 to 2 o'clock, I know I can be focused at this point. So whenever I need to get something very important done, it is in my schedule from 10 to 2 o'clock,

Starting point is 00:05:27 somewhere in there. So what is it for you? Maybe it's, you know, 7 p.m. Maybe it is for you. For me, that's definitely not my time. That's usually when my brain likes to shut off and chill. But maybe it is for you. So first off, before you do anything,

Starting point is 00:05:42 don't try to force yourself to focus at times when you're not normally focusing well. So you have to kind of use yourself as a guinea pig and say, do I focus well in the morning, in, you know, around noon, late noon, you know, late morning, late afternoon, early afternoon, late night, evening. When is it that's best for me? You have to kind of feel when you take everything I'm going to teach you, you have to feel out what is the best for you. So for me, if I have something important, it's happening between 10 or two, right? And I've just learned this simply through

Starting point is 00:06:12 trial and error. That's it. Just trial and error. So you're gonna have to use yourself as a guinea pig for a little while. The second thing to do is to create a ritual. I'm going to tell you what my ritual is for intense focus. You can create whatever ritual you want to,. I'm going to tell you what my ritual is for intense focus. You can create whatever ritual you want to, but I'm going to tell you why mine is important to me in different ways that it helps me stay focused. And then what I'm going to do is allow you to take any piece of this or all of this and steal it from me if you'd like, and I'm going to tell you why this is important. So the reason why we want to create a ritual is because it's the same as Pavlov's dogs. I'm conditioning myself to tell my brain, it's time to get stuff done. It's time to focus. So the same way Pavlov's dogs, if you've ever heard, they'd ring a bell and they give dog food and

Starting point is 00:06:55 they'd ring a bell and they give dog food and they'd ring a bell and they'd give dog food. After a few weeks of this, they'd ring a bell and the dog would start to salivate. Why? Because it was expecting food. So if I can create a ritual, my brain is going to expect, oh, it's time to sit down and focus. It's time to get rid of all distractions, right? So I have very specific rituals that I do every single day between 10 and 2 to make myself focus. First thing I do is, you know, is I have a very specific spot that I usually sit down. So I have a spot in my house. So I work, just to give you an idea,

Starting point is 00:07:27 if you're watching this on video, I work in my office normally throughout the day. On my intense focus times, I literally sit behind me on the floor at the coffee table and work there. It's brighter in this room. I just like to get more done here. It's the only place where I usually do intense focus.

Starting point is 00:07:45 I literally sit down there and intensely focus in that spot. And the reason why is because I want to make sure that my brain knows this environment that I'm in that's different from the other environment when I work is where I need to intensely focus on what it is that I'm trying to do. So that's the first thing. My environment needs to reflect a spot where I'm intensely focused. I'm triggering and telling my brain. I'm conditioning my brain, this is where I focus. Hey, let me tell you about my favorite drink that I take every single morning. It's called

Starting point is 00:08:14 Athletic Greens. And here's how I start my morning every single day. Go to the bathroom, brush my teeth, drink Athletic Greens, and then I meditate. And in 30 seconds, in just one scoop, I get 75 vitamins, minerals, and whole food source ingredients. And it has everything that a multivitamin has, plus greens, probiotics, prebiotics, digestive enzymes, immunity formula, adaptogens, and so much more. And my girlfriend was sick a couple of weeks ago, and I slept next to her every single night, and I did not get her sickness. Because I think the reason why is because I take athletic greens every single day. I'm religious with it. So if you're looking to upgrade your multivitamin

Starting point is 00:08:49 or take one nutritional formula that's going to help you cover all of your daily nutritional bases, then you want to consider athletic greens. Athletic greens makes getting a high quality nutrition as easy as possible without the need to buy multiple products. So make an investment in your health today and try the ultimate all-in-one wellness bundle and support your immunity, gut health, and energy by visiting athleticgreens.com slash dial. You'll receive a full year supply of liquid vitamin D for free with your first purchase. Again, that is athleticgreens.com slash dial. So I sit down, I make sure that all notifications are off. There's no way you can get ahold of me on my phone. If you send me an email, if you send me a text message, if you try to get ahold of me

Starting point is 00:09:31 on Facebook or Instagram, there's absolutely no way on my phone or my computer that you can get ahold of me in some sort of way. All notifications are off. And in fact, my phone is always in another room. So I don't even have the urge to go and get my phone and reach for it next to my computer because there's no way for me to get it. It's in another room. Next thing I always have is I always have tea with me. And usually what I drink is yerba mate. Yerba mate has a whole lot of benefits to it. You can Google it. It's got about the same amount of caffeine as coffee does, but I take it because of the fact that it hydrates you instead of dehydrating you. It has a whole bunch of benefits to it. There's a whole bunch of... Google it. I don't need to tell you all the reasons why

Starting point is 00:10:08 yerba mate is good. I have yerba mate simply because I get a big spike in energy and it doesn't drop immediately or very soon like coffee does. It usually takes about four to five hours for your body to fully process it. And that's the energy dropping throughout the time. So I have yerba mate. In your case, it could be any form of caffeine if you really want to. Another thing that I have is I have noise canceling headphones. So that therefore, I can't hear the outside world around me. My brain now knows I'm in an environment. I'm drinking the same tea I always do.

Starting point is 00:10:36 I have noise canceling headphones. And then I listen to the exact same three-hour song on YouTube, which is Binaural Beats. There's no singing in it, nothing. It's just the exact same song. I literally put in Binarial Beats Focus, and that's what I listened to. It's like two hours and 48 minutes. So now I'm creating the sound in my ears, telling my brain, now it's time to focus. So then what I do is something that's important. This is how you get your brain and your body on the same page. So what I do is obviously I sit down, it's the exact same place. I have the same taste in my mouth, which is the Yerba Mate every single time. I have the same headphones on every single time.

Starting point is 00:11:14 I have the same song on every single time. And what I do is I then look at my screen. So if you're going to be writing your book or sending emails or whatever it is that you have to bring intense focus to, if you're using a computer, you can use this in any other arena that you want to use it in. But if you're using a computer, stare at your screen for about a minute to two minutes and try not to blink. This is telling your brain when you don't blink and you literally keep your eyes open, you stare at the screen, it is telling your brain, I need to focus on this. And the less that you can blink, now if you have to blink, no big deal, you can blink. But try to

Starting point is 00:11:50 do this and bring intense focus to it. And what you're trying to do is, the good thing about it is you're, you know, as Andrew Huberman, the neurobiologist out of Stanford says, you're trying to get in the tunnel. You're trying to make your brain, your eyes go from seeing in the peripheral vision to closing in a little bit. So it's kind of like just a tunnel and get rid of your peripheral vision. This is actually your eyes telling your brain it's time to get focused because visual focus is always before mental focus. So if you're trying to get your brain to focus, you need to bring your visual focus first. And less blinking brings more focus to the brain. So if I'm going to sit down and I

Starting point is 00:12:30 got to get intense work done, I've got to get some intense work done on my computer, I'm going to write my book, right? Then I'm going to sit down, I'm going to go through all of these checks that I do this ritual every single time. And I'm going to stare at my screen for as long as I possibly can and not blink as long as I possibly can and try to get myself in the tunnel, try to stop seeing my peripheral vision and try to see just the computer as much as I possibly can. That is telling my brain it's time to focus. And if nothing is still coming out, what I will make myself do is I will start typing. So a lot of times we feel like if you've heard of writer's block, writer's

Starting point is 00:13:05 block a lot of time is actually not creativity block. It's actually a block that your brain is putting in, resisting going into a new action. Same with what I said that if I'm going from sitting on the couch to going and working out, my brain is going to resist it simply because it is a new action. So if I'm sitting down to write and I wasn't writing earlier, my brain is going to resist it simply because it is a new action. So if I'm sitting down to write and I wasn't writing earlier, my brain is going to resist it. So I'm simply just going to start typing. So if I'm sitting down to write my book, I'm going to do all of the exact same things I normally do. I'm going to bring intense focus. I'm going to focus my eyes because visual focus always precedes mental focus. So you've got to bring visual focus that tells your brain to focus. And then what I'm going to do is I'm going to sit there and I'm going to say, today is Saturday. It is a sunny day outside. I am wearing a gray shirt. I'm wearing a

Starting point is 00:13:49 watch and it is 1234 PM. And I'm going to literally just type, just type anything that you want to. Yesterday I did this for about three to five minutes, just type anything and you can delete all of it. What you're doing is you're warming your brain up to this new activity if there's resistance towards it. It's normal to feel resistance and frustration. It means you're doing it right if you're actually feeling this. A lot of times if we feel frustration or anxiousness, we think that we need to back away from what we're doing. But when you're bringing in intense focus to something, until your brain's completely changed, completely changed, like if you completely rewire your brain, until it has changed and bringing intense focus in the early stages of doing this, the brain is going to resist

Starting point is 00:14:34 something new. And it's always, this is one of the most important things you're ever going to hear me say, it always feels like stress and agitation and anxiousness in the brain. It always feels like stress and agitation and anxiousness in the brain. So sitting down to do a new action should make you feel stress, agitation, and anxiousness in some sort of way because that's literally the chemicals that are released for focus. Norepinephrine, which is adrenaline in the body, in the brain is called norepinephrine, and acetylcholine, which is actually a part of your chemical that's released inside of your brain so that therefore it can make you focus, and cortisol are all released when you're going into doing something new.

Starting point is 00:15:15 It's the resistance that you feel, but the resistance that you feel is your brain actually putting these chemicals out so that you can focus. This is actually how the brain warms up the circuits that are going to be active for what it is that you're going to do. So when we sit down and do something and we feel stress or agitation or anxiousness, we think there's something wrong with us. But in reality, that is actually the precursor to intense focus. So you've got to fight through the anxiety feeling or the anxiousness feeling or the frustration or the stress feeling because those chemicals are being, it is literally your brain showing you, I am releasing the chemicals that you need in order to be focused. Just keep going.

Starting point is 00:15:57 So you're about to get into deep focus at this point. This is super important. Usually feeling stress and anxiousness and anxiety makes us feel like we want to shut down and doing something. It's actually the exact opposite if we're trying to bring intense focus to it. So this is actually a really, really good thing. Just fight through it for about three to five minutes and then your focus will be there. And this is why literally you get the most done the day before you go on vacation or the day of a deadline is because if you're about to leave for vacation, you have to get something done. Or if you have a deadline that you absolutely have to meet, the stress, anxiousness, agitation, it's already there because you know you have to

Starting point is 00:16:37 get it done. But that's why you get so much done is because they're already present, which makes focusing be even easier. A lot of times a brain's going to resist a new action. Writer's block is not a creativity block. Writer's block is just a resistance to starting a new activity. You have to fight through it. So just start typing, whatever it is you got to do. And so then what I do after I do all of this is I put myself into 30-minute increments. I do something called the, you may have heard me talk about it before, it's called the Pomodoro technique. 25 minutes on, five minutes off, 25 minutes on, five minutes off, 25 minutes on, five minutes off. 25 minutes of hardcore work on one thing and one thing only. I don't let myself,

Starting point is 00:17:14 if I have an idea, I have a notepad that's next to me. I just write the idea down and I go back to what I was doing. I don't open up a tab. I don't pull up my phone because my phone's not next to me at all. So it's 25 minutes of hardcore work for one thing and one thing only. And then five minutes of another thing that Andrew Huberman calls non-sleep deep rest. Non-sleep deep rest basically means I'll do 25 minutes of hardcore work. I'll go outside on my patio for five minutes. I'll sit down and I'll just sit. I don't have my phone. I don't go on Instagram. I don't do any of those things. I'm allowing my brain to go from hardcore in the tunnel focus. And then when I go sit outside, it brings it back to peripheral vision and I can see around me again. And I can see the world and

Starting point is 00:17:56 what's going on. Now, most of the time I stick to this, but if at 25 minutes, I'm in the zone and I'm at hardcore focus, I'll allow myself to go for another five or 10 extra minutes if I need to, because I don't want to break hardcore focus if I need to. The reason why this is important is because there were studies that were done on people's focus. And within about 10 minutes, you have this huge spike from not focused to the most focused, the highest point. And then after it gets the highest point about 10 minutes in, it slowly drops and it continues to keep dropping and there's no other spikes in focus. So if you work for 90 minutes, you only get one big spike and then it continues to fall the rest of the time. But if you work for 25 minutes, you're going to get one huge spike at 10 minutes,

Starting point is 00:18:39 then it's going to slowly drop. And then you work for another 25 minutes, you're going to get one huge spike again, and it's going to drop. And you work for another 25 minutes, it's one huge spike again, and then it drops. So instead of getting one over a 90 minute period, instead of getting one bit of hardcore focus, you're actually getting three when you break it up into three separate increments of 30 minutes. And so I try to go for 90 minutes of hardcore focus for whatever it is that needs to be done. And then I take about a 20, 30 minute break. Non-sleep deep rest. Once again, I can do whatever I want to. I can go outside and look around, whatever it is I need to do. I can talk to people. I can make a couple

Starting point is 00:19:14 phone calls. And then what I try to do is I try to get one more bout of 90 minutes. If I can get in two cycles of 90 minutes, each one of them is three cycles of the Pomodoro technique, 25 minutes on, five minutes off, 25 minutes on, five minutes off, 25 minutes on, five minutes off. If I can get two cycles of hardcore 90 minutes done, that's literally, what is that? Three hours of intense focus. I'm going to get way more done than the average person that just works eight hours a day in the office and isn't trying to bring intense focus. So in order to bring intense focus to whatever it is that you're doing, you have to know how your brain and body work together. And when you know how your brain and body work together, it makes it so much easier.

Starting point is 00:19:54 So what you've got to do is number one, you've got to figure out the time of day that works best for you. That's what you have to figure out. Don't try to force yourself to focus at a time that's not good for you to focus. And number two, create a ritual that works for you and then bring intense focus. And knowing how your brain and body work now, you're going to feel that agitation, fight through it. You're about to get intensely focused after that. So this is episode two of the three-part series of how to take action. Obviously, this is how to bring intense focus to get stuff done. If you liked this episode, please share it on your Instagram stories and tag me at RobDialJr. And I'm going to leave you the same way I leave you every single episode,

Starting point is 00:20:33 make it your mission to make someone else's day better. I appreciate you, and I hope that you have an amazing day.

The Mindset Mentor - How to Train Your Brain to Focus - TAKE ACTION PT.2

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.