Academics Plus Tutoring Center

 A few nights ago I watched ‘The Peaceful Warrior’, a film based on Dan Millman’s novel.  The film is filled with deceptively simple-sounding lessons, but the value in strategies and philosophies is not only to know them, but to make the dedicated effort to act them out.  Often, a message of only a few words can require immense and sometimes life-long effort and dedication to really enact.   

So why do I mention this film?   

One of the lessons that stood out to me most was the importance of concentrating on one thing at a time.  I mean focusing entirely on the task at hand…the very moment that you are doing it.  To be able to give your complete focus to ALL you do would take a lifetime of evaluation, dedication and investment, but it is a practice that you can begin implementing now with the smallest of tasks. 

Think of the difference between long term goals and the short term goals that need to be achieved along the way to accomplish your ultimate aim.  If you want to improve your SAT score by 200 points, you need to identify smaller, short term goals so you can advance toward the score you want.  So sit down and write out a handful of short term-goals based on an evaluation of where you want to go, an identification of the obstacles in your way, and the strengths that you possess that will help you get to your final destination. For example if you do great on math multiple choice but the transition to grid-ins feels like falling into an abyss, then you may want to practice a series of math grid-ins while being timed.  Or you may want to cover up the answers to the multiple choice problems so the grid-ins don’t feel like such a distant leap. 

And each time you work on one of you short term goals, give it all your attention.  Don’t think about what to eat for dinner and don’t think about the one Sentence Completion problem you blanked out in the last section. Instead focus solely on your goal.

All that should exist in that moment is now.  Sound cheesy?  Give it a try.  And also take a second to ask yourself:  How often do I give all my attention to a single task?  What types of tasks or projects or exercises are they?  How does that change the outcome or product of what I am doing?

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