The Hidden Driver

19 Dec The Hidden Driver

Daniel Goleman, science journalist, psychologist and author of Emotional Intelligence has published a new work on the brain. In Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence, Goleman delves into how to harness attention to accomplish daily tasks. As the holidays approach, these insights are even more critical with traffic, parties, client gifts, and the big distracter, family visits.

The holidays contain great opportunities to form strategic alliances. The challenge is dealing with the distractions, which are sensory and emotional. Distractions include everything that bombards our senses, and the feelings arising from blowups, family struggles, or the current political atmosphere. Goleman says “the dividing line between fruitless rumination and productive reflection” has to do with whether we can come up with a solution, or keep obsessing and worrying. A solution, even a tentative one, allows us to let the distressing idea go, move on, and achieve better focus.

To be successful requires tuning out the emotional turbulence, so that in a crisis we remain unflappable. Failure to do so keeps us in repeating loops of chronic anxiety. Eat the elephant one bite at a time. Breathe. Keep on an even keel. And stay focused on accomplishing what is at hand. Goleman says “the power to disengage our attention from one thing and move it to another is essential for well-being.” This holiday season, give yourself the gift of focus.

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