PNTV: The Power of Concentration by Theron Q. Dumont (#175)

Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to Philosopher's Notes tv. Today, another great book, the Power of Concentration by Tharrone Q. Demant. This is old school. This book was not written by a guy named Theron Q. Demant. That's a pseudonym for another guy named William Walker Atkinson. 1918. Old school wisdom. Good stuff. We've got the Philosopher's Note here with a bunch of big ideas and a handful of my favorites. Let's jump straight in. What is concentration? Concentration is essentially strength of mind, being able to put your attention where you want, when you want. As we discuss all the time. There's nothing that's more important than that. If you've got your little monkey swinging in your head from thought to thought to thought to thought to thought to thought to endless thought, you can't gain control of that little guy. You're going to have challenges. So we want to cultivate our concentration first. Big idea here is think of it like the sun's rays. You know that Alexandra Graham, Alexander Graham Bell quote. I'll find it for us. Give me a moment. He tells us that we need to concentrate on your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus. Have you ever done this? Have you ever played around with the sun in a magnifying glass? Bringing the sun's rays to a little focus and you literally can burn a leaf. I think I'd done this when I was a kid. I can't remember for sure, but about a year ago or so, maybe it was two. Now I got a magnifying glass and I ran the experiment. It's really, really cool. Do it safely, but try it out. Get your magnifying glass if you have one. Think about getting one if you don't and see how. If you get the right angle and you're able to focus the sun's rays in a very precise point, you can't have a diffuse kind of sort of almost focus point. It's got to be laser focused. When you do that, you can make a leaf smoke and burn a hole right through it pretty darn quickly. So we need to think about that. We have this enormous mental power that we want to discipline ourselves to focus, concentration. Think of the sun's rays. How do you do that? Well, with anything, any skill you want to develop. Practice, practice, practice and practice. Two primary things we can think about in terms of our practice. One, meditation. You might notice I'm repeating myself. That's on purpose. Are you meditating yet? Because that is anaerobic training. That's strength training for your brain, for your mind. It's huge. And then the other way we practice is moment to moment to moment. Every moment gives us an opportunity to be focused or diffused. If we're constantly doing 10 things at once and not concentrate on anything on the little things, we're going to have a really hard time focusing when it matters. So practice, don't multitask. It's unequivocally less effective than focusing on one thing, getting it done, focusing on another thing, getting it done. Having all of your email windows open and your instant message tools open and your social streams open and da da da, da, da da. You're distracting yourself. You're paper cutting yourself all day long and you're doing that to your concentration, to your attention. So practice focusing on a task or with an individual or whatever, a meal. Be focused on that one thing. Then also think about cultivating your meditation practice. If you wanted to get a strong body and be in physical shape, you would train in order to be in better shape. If you want a better mind, you need to train your mind. No better way than meditation. We talk about that all the time. And then third big idea on the power of concentration is stick to it. Iveness. Stick to it. Iveness. I love it. Here's a quote. Who tells us this. I'll give proper attribution here. Check out the philosopher's note says it's a good one. Josh Billings tells us, be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there. Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there. So there you go. We've got the sun. We can think about. Think about that little stamp on an envelope and stick to one thing until you get to your destination again. Are you starting something and doing something else? And starting something and doing something else. Stick to one thing until you're done. Single handling is something is what Brian Tracy calls it one touching stuff. You start it, you finish it. You start it, you finish it. Great way to build your concentration. Stick to it. Iveness. Fourth big idea. Can't versus won't try. So oftentimes we say I can't do something. Whether it's concentrate or get something done or do something that challenges us, we say, I can't. The good author tells us, really, is it that you can't or is it that you won't try? I can't versus I won't try. Let's Be honest with ourselves. Too often we're saying I can't, when the issue really is we're not willing to try. So you can choose to do something or not, but let's not pretend that it's impossible for us to do it. I can't do it. Just try and see what you can get done. Big idea, I can't versus I won't try. And then we're zipping through these today. The fifth one is two lawyers in your mind. Ultimately, we want to use our concentration to choose to step forward into growth. Forward into growth, forward into growth. We have a battle between the two sides of ourselves, our two natures. That's what he describes it as, right? There's the higher version of ourselves and the lower version of ourselves. We've got that wolf within us, right? Kind of the courage wolf and the fear wolf. Which one wins? Whichever one we feed. Right? Whichever one we pay attention to. Alan Cohen has a great of describing it and he says, imagine you have two lawyers in your mind. One is arguing for all your possibility, all the things that you can do, you aspire to do, right? It's a great attorney arguing on your behalf of those great things. Then you have this other attorney who's arguing against this attorney, all the reasons why you can't do those things, all your shortcomings, your failures, etc. That's what they're bringing up all the time. Question is, in this courtroom of your mind, which lawyer wins? Alan says, well, the one you pay the most is going to win. But you pay them in the form of your attention. You pay them in the form of your concentration. Where are you putting your mind? If you're putting it on the bad stuff all the time, guess what? That version of you is going to win. That attorney is going to win. You're going to feel down if you feed the good attorney with a lot of attention. That's what's going to win. So pay attention to it. And again, that takes a strong mind. In order to be able to do that, you need to practice meditation moment to moment. Use the little things, the little things that can get you annoyed. To train your mind to be more positive. Step in between stimulus and response. Choose a better response with the little things. Makes it easier to win this big battle. Which remember too often we're saying I can't, when the issue really is I won't try. Quit saying I can't and quit saying I won't try. And just try. You'll see, you'll be shocked by how much more powerful you are. Stick to something like a postage stamp till you arrive at your destination and then remember the sun's rays. Go get a magnifying glass. Experiment with this. Then think about how you are diffusing your energy too often and and how you can focus it and make the things in your life that you want to bring to life burn with your energy. Powerfully focused. That's a quick look at the power of concentration. I hope you enjoyed and I look forward to sharing more with you soon. Have another awesome day. See you.