Attention with Awareness Leads to Better Performance

Time for a brain teaser and performance tip to get your creative minds going and help increase your performance.

From my last personal training session and part of our new training programs.

Attention with Awareness

The best performers are able to maintain their attention on one thing while maintaining a conscious/sub-conscious awareness of other processes or environmental factors. Dr. James Loehr, Canadian Sports Psychologist calls this type of awareness a “Level 1 Awareness”.

A level 1 awareness is very different from subconsciously doing something yet not remembering it later. It is one of the hallmarks of higher levels of mastery, be it shooting, driving, martial arts or whatever.

Your challenge is to pay attention to what is important (conscious focus of the mind) while also monitoring the other processes and things that are going on at the same time without trying to control them with your conscious mind.

Example:

On one training stage, I need to really “read” my sights as I am shooting but also be awareness of my body movement and trigger finger at times.

Paying attention to the sights occupies much of my conscious mind on this particular stage as they are difficult shots and have to be executed precisely. While I do this, I must also focus my awareness on correct choreography so that I complete the stage in minimum time.

I also monitor what is going on with my trigger finger in terms of placement, tension etc. and adjust as needed “on the fly”. The position of a mover or turner will also register in my awareness without distracting my attention on the sights in relation to target etc.

A higher plane of execution, awareness and understanding of processes leads to higher, more consistent performances.