The Art of the Focus (8): Stop and Become Aware.

A strategy usually would not work if you and/or your team is not focused on the big picture and the components within it. One cannot just think about being focused. (Just like one cannot think that he becomes a leader and therefore he/she becomes a leader. That "new age" type of thinking does not work with us.) Pragmatically, it is a repeated practice of centering, focusing, experiencing, reflecting and reviewing. .

One learns how to become focused by understanding how to center him or herself through the feel of wholeness. It is important to slow down and stop. Stand and slowly observe one's surroundings. After awhile, one begins to become aware of oneself, one's own surroundings and the terrain. Many hours of this unique practice allows one to operate steady and instinctively. Instead of concentrating oneself on a target like a light from flashlight, he/she starts to focus like a laser beam pinpointed on a target.

There is no real magic ritual to this unique practice. It is the practice that requires many hrs of practice. Ancient daoists believed that it is what propels the other practices..

The Origin of the Way

The way begets one;

One begets two;

Two begets three;

Three begets the myriad creatures.

The myriad creatures carry on their backs the yin and embrace in their arms the yang and are the blending of the generative forces of the two.

There are no words which men detest more than 'solitary', 'desolate', and 'hapless', yet lords and princes use these to refer to themselves.

Thus a thing is sometimes added to by being diminished and diminished by being added to.

What others teach I also teach.

'The violent shall not come to a natural end.'

I shall take this as my precept.

- Dao De Jing, 42 (D.C. Lau translation)

Our hardcore martial art associates believed in this category of practice and performs it daily. For more information, you can learn more about this unique practice from the following sites: Cook Ding's Kitchen, Smiling Tiger.net, ChinafromInside.com, The Wushucentre.net and Emptyflower.net

“In order to await the disordered; in tranquility awaits the clamorous. This is the way to control the mind.” -AoW 7

It does not matter if the strategic players are Sunzi enthusiasts, John Boyd's OODA fanatics, Clausewitz's zealots, Game Theory's practitioners or Blue Ocean's extremists. A team can only build, connect and lead with almost any strategic approach if they are focused from the start. ... Whether they can prevail with it, that is a different story.