The Art of reFOCUS

The Art of reFOCUS

To refocus is to adjust the focus, or to focus on something new or different.

reFOCUS is my technique of going back to re-exam something in more detail – to look further or deeper than what we initially see. It’s a way of understanding the root causes or understanding the hidden reasons behind things. It’s to look for the reason why things work the way they do, or why we think and feel the way we do.

We take a lot for granted and our understanding of many things operates on an automatic (autotelic) sub-conscious level. This is part of the way our brains are wired to operate. It is what enables us to ride a bicycle and have a conversation with someone at the same time. The bicycle riding is happening automatically in the background. The conversation is our topic of focus; in the ‘foreground’ so to say. reFOCUS is my technique of going back to something that is on ‘autopilot’ and putting it into the area of conscious focus and working on it actively. Due to the complexity in the world we live in and the large amount of data we are exposed to all the time, we are forced to filter things out. Our understanding can sometimes be based on a superficial level of detail and comprise assumptions at different levels.

A classic example is my understanding of my own strengths. There are many things I find relatively easy but I wouldn’t consider them to be strengths. It’s only when I ask myself what my strengths are and when I really focus on it that I realise I’m not that sure about what they may be. It’s only when I think deeply and consciously about it – when I reFOCUS on it, that I start to understand it better. I also need to find a way to evaluate how others perform when doing those same things so that I can start understanding whether I am better, more effective or more efficient than them at it, and this enables me to realise that it may be a strength relative to others. This is why our strengths can seem invisible to us.

We live is a world of constant change and we are constantly learning and adapting. So it is possible that we may acquire or develop new strengths or loose our proficiency with some things that were once core strengths due to infrequent use. So there is a need to periodically reFOCUS on these things to stay in touch with our understanding of what our strengths are. This applies to many other aspects in our life and career and forms the core principle of my coaching work.

Get in touch and tell me what you would like to reFOCUS on.