Unfocus 🔎

Why Cross Fit is my new jam and how I finished faster and you can too… 🚀

I’ve been trying Cross Fit. I say “trying” because even after close to 6 months of it, I’m not that good at it. Though, I will say I’m getting better each week. Practice makes perfect, right?

This is my point today. I want to talk about focus and relentless improvement.

What I’m about to say may be complete horse shit in the Gym and Fitness world, but it works for me and works for the Corporate and Creative world.

I have been trying to get better at skipping, at Cross Fit. Jump rope. 👟👟

P.S. No, this is not me. This is who I’d like to be ha ha. My ultimate me… My outcome.

I’m not ready to do ‘double unders’ yet. That’s when you can jump high enough that you can flip the skipping rope twice before you land your feet. I can just do singles, and even then my singles are… questionable. I used to skip as a child… a lot. Seems that’s the one childhood talent I’ve forgotten, ha ha, or so it seemed.

Every time I practiced my skipping, I’d focus so hard on my hands holding the rope, and my feet’s height in jump. I would think a lot about how my body was connecting… or not connecting; how tired my calves were. Invariably every 8 to 10 skips, the rope would catch my legs and break my flow. I’d have to start again from scratch. My output was… terrible. Everyone else was hitting 70 or 80 double under skips in the time period. Me;: 20 singles. What was I doing wrong?

And then, slowly and surely, with time and patience, I started to increase my numbers. 30, then 40; 50 then 60. Today: 80 in 45 seconds, the expected result. Wow! Victory. 🎉

But what was it that improved my result? What can I learn from this?

Was it endurance? Partly yes. The more reps I did in the workout, the more skips I was able to do. But I also got tired.

Was it practice? Partly yes, because you’d at least expect after 6 months I’m getting something right.

Was it approach? Perhaps. I’m learning to jump better and hold the rope better.

📿

But what was really fascinating to learn was how I focused, or shall I be more specific: unfocused.

🔎

Here is what worked the most:

Once I started my skip for the rep (the expected result for the rep was 80 skips), I stopped focusing on HOW my body was performing after about 3 skips. I stopped thinking about how I was jumping, whether I was tired, how I was holding the rope, etc. Instead, I started focusing on counting.

Yes, counting. 3, 4, 5, 6,… 31, 32, 33, 34,… 65, 66, 67,… I just focused on the rhythm of counting up.

I also stared on one point in front of me and just zoned in on that point. Sometimes it was a mark on the wall. Sometimes a spot on the floor. I counted and stared.

I stopped thinking about how my calves hurt, or how the twist of the rope caught the side of my palms. I stopped focusing on how bad I jumped or how hard it was to jump. I let go of how I jumped. I wasn’t even thinking about jumping.

I just focused on counting. And the dot on the wall

I focused. But unfocused. Do you see?

I tested my theory several times and it gave a similar result: always more continuous skips. Always a little faster.

Now, you might be wondering, why am I writing about skipping? About jump rope? 😳

There is a point here. I promise.

It’s about getting results. 🚀

Whether you are an engineer in tech building features by the end of the sprint

Or an entrepreneur building a startup

Or a coach building a lead generation funnel for new clients (lol I guess I’m in that bucket today)

Or a person building a house or a fence or brick wall

Or an individual looking to lose weight or strengthen your core or … hey… finish a marathon skipping event….

Or a musician writing your next opus.

Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT focus on the effort.

Again: Do not focus on the effort.

Don’t think about how hard it is to code.

Don’t think about how hard it is to start a new business.

Don’t think about how to figure out how to sign up clients with platforms and tools and, oy vey,… “do they really care?”

Don’t think about how heavy that brick or wood or metal piece is to finish that house or wall.

Don’t worry about the steps to skip or how your muscles are aching.

Don’t worry about getting the musical notes wrong in the music piece.

Just focus on the result. That’s it.

The delightful product feature to customers.

The amazing new business that makes bank.

The next client that changes their life from my coaching. 😍

The delightful fence or a house to live in.

The awesome in-shape body.

The opus song 🎵

In fact, unfocus.

While you are doing, toiling, thinking,… just unfocus on the doing and divert attention to the art itself. Let the mind and body connect while you unfocus.

For me it is counting those skips 1, 2, 3, .. 78, 79, 80! And zoning in on the spot on the wall

Or just enjoying the piano ivories

Or artfully writing cool blogs like this by enjoying the art of writing and not on how many people might not read it.

Don’t get caught up in the hard parts. Enjoy the creativity of doing. Unfocus the mind and just…. Be…. In it.

And all of a sudden things happen successfully - With velocity!!!

OK so I’m going to go here for a bit…. The need for speed.

When I started skipping I was so slow. The rope got caught every 5  to 10 skips. But when I unfocused, I hit my 80, right?

I stopped focusing on the doing, the muscles, the rope, the effort. Instead I focused on counting. Body and rope became one. It became… effortless.

And fast.

I have a whole thought-process on building high performing, fast-delivering teams based on UN FOCUSING…

You may be wondering, why are you bringing this up, Gilli?

Well, because in all of my years - and that’s at least 15, of me leading teams to build products or campaigns in Startups and Fortune 500 companies, my boss at every time always wanted my teams and I to deliver fast. Faster!

And my answer to that is, unfocus.

Focus on the result. Don’t focus on how hard it takes to get there. Focus on the reward, don’t focus on the effort. Focus on how customers will be delighted, don’t focus on the massive, complex undertaking to get there.

I’m an agilist. I’ve probably put together or overseen about 600 agile teams in my career. That’s about 6000 people give or take, executing and delivering on products, campaigns, events and more. Just in the last 10 years.

The most successful agile teams have these traits:

• small 5-7 people

• Nimble - not too many tasks in a 2 week iteration

• Energized and connected: their sense of team sport and culture is strong

• They focus only on the result and not whine along the way in how hard it is.

I’ve got a slew of tips on team work. Ask me what they are by contacting me at gilli@theCrea8ve.com

Meanwhile, back to the point of this blog.

Unfocus.

So, the next time you get in a pickle and are not finishing the job - just focus on the outcome. In fact, focus on something else and let your body ‘do’ without your mind getting in the way.

Remember those paintings in the eighties where you had to unfocus your eyes to see the picture?

Do that.

xo, Gilli