Focus - Attention - Self Discipline - Self Control - Will Power

Focus is concentrating on one thing at a time, or giving your attention to just one person at a time, while filtering out irrelevant information or ignoring noises that would distract you, or ignoring other thoughts or other actions that would interfere with your concentration. You can have broad concentration or narrow concentration. You can have internal focus or external focus when listening or watching. You can adjust the intensity of your focus to be relaxed or strong, and you can adjust the duration of your focus to be short or long. Goals.



Attention is the behavioral and cognitive process of selectively concentrating on a discrete aspect of information, whether deemed subjective or objective, while ignoring or filtering other perceivable information in order to complete a goal. Focusing is taking possession of the mind, in clear and vivid form, to focus on one thing among several simultaneous objects or choices, or trains of thought. Attention is the allocation of limited processing resources. Single-tasking instead of multitasking, or the focalization and concentration of consciousness. Focusing helps us to become more proficient at sports, games and musical instruments. Focusing also helps us to become better at controlling our addictions and better at controlling our behaviors by being mindful of ourselves. Being able to focus also helps us become more proficient when listening, reading, learning and working. Understanding the skills and the components of concentration are extremely important. There are many benefits that come from the ability to focus our attention on things that are important. Being able to stay focused on something is an extremely valuable skill.

Spacing Out - Attention Problems - Not fully Conscious

Brain Waves - Mindset - Time Management - Prioritizing - Delaying

The ability to focus is an important function of the human brain. But just like with our brains ability to imagine and believe, we need to use our brains technology effectively and efficiently. We don't want to focus on the wrong things while ignoring the good things or denying things for the wrong reasons. Controlling the wandering mind takes practice. Sometimes you have to choose the right location and learn how to tune out distractions. Focus and self-control is also about thinking clearly and not being distracted from your emotions or feelings. Attention skills include knowing when to focus on small details and knowing when to focus on the bigger picture. It's knowing how to filter out unimportant sights, sounds or information. It's paying attention without getting distracted. It's  holding a train of thought when interrupted. It's following through on a task without needing to hear directions several times. It's concentrating on one activity at a time, and to follow spoken directions and process information quickly in order to keep up with a conversation.

Willpower - Strong Willed - Default Network - Staying Calm - Vigilance - Listening - Interested - Immersion - Commitment - Awareness - Hypnosis - Flow

Attention Management refers to models and tools for supporting the management of attention at the individual or at the collective level, and at the short-term or at a longer term over periods of weeks or months. Distractions diminish people's ability to remember. Divided attention does impair memory, but people can still selectively focus on what is most important, even while they're multitasking. Supporting the management of attention the objective is to bring a certain number of solutions to attention problems. A selection of these problems are: people perception cognitive limitations - Such as the limited capacity of the human short-term memory where an average number of 4 items can be managed at a given time (Cowan 2001), or the theoretical cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships as with the Dunbar's number of 150. Social Interaction Overload is when people get a lot of solicitations and interruptions that originate from online social networking services.

Reading Speeds - Readability - Gawking - Gaze Detection - Eye Tracking

Trained brains rapidly suppress visual distractions. Researchers show that while strong distractions may automatically capture our attention, the trained brain can rapidly suppress such distractions to help us efficiently reach our goals. Neurons in area V4 of the visual cortex, a brain area that processes visual information relatively early after is is captured by the eyes, showed consistently enhanced responses to the shape target stimuli. Responses to the distracting color stimuli on the other hand were only very briefly enhanced but became rapidly suppressed. It appears that the brain first briefly detects the presence of the distracting stimulus, and then quickly suppresses it to avoid that it will interfere with the search for the shape target. The color pop-out signal that might cause distraction is thus essentially inverted into a kind of negative pop-out, or "pop-in," to avoids distraction.

How the brain responds to surprising events. Researchers have found that one key role of the neuromodulator noradrenaline, produced by the locus coeruleus, is to help the brain learn from surprising outcomes. When your brain needs you to pay attention to something important, one way it can do that is to send out a burst of noradrenaline, according to a new MIT study. Distractions.

How to stay on task. Setting goals can help individuals better sustain attention and reduce attention lapses.

Focusing requires more energy when you compare it to thinking about nothing in particular. So your brain will eventually run out of energy and your mind will start to wander. Here are some tips to help you focus: Take breaks. Work in chunks, like the Pomodoro method, where you work for 25 minutes and then rest for 3–5 minutes. Avoid distractions. Remove items that distract you, like equipment that makes noise or lights. You can also turn off notifications on your phone and use website blockers. Avoid multitasking: The brain can only focus on one task at a time, so avoid multitasking when working on important tasks.  Focus on the process. Instead of focusing on events, try to concentrate on the processes that lead to success. Protect your creative time. Figure out when you're most productive and try to protect that time. Exercise: There's a direct link between exercise and cognitive ability. Physical activity can improve your brain health and help you focus. Try to get at least 30 minutes of exercise each day. . Eat a balanced diet: Fish is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, which are important for brain health. Get enough sleep: Getting enough sleep each night can help you stay mentally focused.

Pomodoro Technique is a time management method that uses a kitchen timer to break work into intervals, typically 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. Each interval is known as a pomodoro, from the Italian word for tomato, after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer Cirillo used as a university student. Choose a task, set a timer for 25 minutes, and focus on that task without interruption. When the timer goes off, take a five minute break. Each 25-minute work session is called a pomodoro. After completing four “pomodoros” in succession, take a 30-minute break.

Without Blinking an Eye means not showing any reaction to something or without displaying any sort of emotional response to something that is strange or shocking or stressful.

Information Overload is the process of taking in too much information in ways that inhibit decision making. People who are interrupted or distracted by chronic pain do significantly worse on attention tasks.

Attention Economy is an approach to the management of information that treats human attention as a scarce commodity and applies economic theory to solve various information management problems. Attention is focused mental engagement on a particular item of information. Items come into our awareness, we attend to a particular item, and then we decide whether to act. As content has grown increasingly abundant and immediately available, attention becomes the limiting factor in the consumption of information. A strong trigger of this effect is that the mental capability of humans is limited and the receptiveness of information is hence limited as well. Attention allows information to be filtered such that the most important information can be extracted from the environment while irrelevant details are left out. Intangibles: Immediacy - priority access, immediate delivery. Personalization - tailored just for you. Interpretation - support and guidance. Authenticity - how can you be sure it is the real thing? Accessibility - wherever, whenever. Embodiment - books, live music. Patronage - "paying simply because it feels good". Findability - "When there are millions of books, millions of songs, millions of films, millions of applications, millions of everything requesting our attention — and most of it free — being found is valuable."

Focus - Flow

Focus is the concentration of attention or energy on something. Direct one's attention on something. Bring into focus or alignment; to converge or cause to converge; of ideas or emotions. Maximum clarity or distinctness of an idea. Special emphasis attached to something. Cause to converge on or toward a central point. A point of convergence of light (or other radiation) or a point from which it diverges. A fixed reference point on the concave side of a conic section. Maximum clarity or distinctness of an image rendered by an optical system. Put an image into focus.

Attention Network - Attending - Will Power

Hyperfocus is an intense form of mental concentration or visualization that focuses consciousness on a subject, topic, or task. In some individuals, various subjects or topics may also include daydreams, concepts, fiction, the imagination, and other objects of the mind. Hyperfocus on a certain subject can cause side-tracking away from assigned or important tasks. Hyperfocus may bear a relationship to the concept of flow. In some circumstances both flow and hyperfocus can be an aid to achievement, but in other circumstance or situations, the same focus and behavior could be a liability, distracting from the task at hand. However, unlike hyperfocus, "flow" is often described in more glowing terms, suggesting they are not two sides of the same condition under contrasting circumstance or intellect.

Concentrate is to focus one's attention or mental effort on a particular object or activity. To direct one's attention on something. Make central. Make more concise. Concentrate also means to make something more denser, more compressed, stronger, or more purer or free from impurities or unwanted materials. Concentration is giving your complete attention to something with intense mental effort. Giving constant diligence and attention. Concentration can also mean to increase the strength of a solution or substance in a given volume. The spatial property of being crowded together or increased density.

Dopamine and Focus - Locus Coeruleus - Adrenaline or Epinephrine - Smart Drugs

Zero In is to focus one's attention on something or to direct all of one's attention to someone or something.

Hone In is to move toward something or focus attention on an objective. Hone is to make something perfect or complete. A whetstone made of fine gritstone; used for sharpening razors.

Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, and a full involvement and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one does. The flow state includes frustration-free conditions where the difficulty of a specific challenge perfectly matches someone's skill level. Facilitating flow during flow experiences, unnecessary neural chatter goes quiet, and whole-brain connectivity streamlines in highly efficient ways. The "flow zone" is marked by cognitive synchronization and flexible, energetically-optimized modular brain network dynamics. Flow state experiences are marked by feelings of contentment, eudaimonia, and the absence of anxiety or boredom. Creating flow can boost confidence, resilience, and self-esteem while lowering stress and depression risk. Getting in the zone and losing yourself in a state of flow is key to achieving peak performance. Beyond optimizing one's potential or winning a competition, flow states make us feel good and are intrinsically rewarding. Professional - Motivation.

Channel your Energy is to deliberately focus on something meaningful in order to create something meaningful, whether material or immaterial. Channeling is used to manifest a goal or a vision using a particular mindset that manages your channeled energy so that you can stay focused on the singularity.

Brain mechanism that drives focus despite distractions. Key neurons in the front of the brain act as 'traffic control' to manage our attention to visual stimuli. Humans and other large mammals can tune out distractions to keep their attention focused on actions that further goals. This is called "top-down" control, in which attention is directed towards a task with the intention of accomplishing a rewarding goal. Large mammals like primates also have brain circuitry that automatically redirects their attention based on incoming sights and sounds and other "salient" sensory stimuli, otherwise known as "bottom-up" control. How the brain suppresses such distractions to keep attention focused on a goal-related task has never been fully clear, until now.

Engaged is having one's attention, mind or energy occupied by something important, sometimes consuming all of one's attention or time. To carry out or participate in an activity and be involved in something important. Engage for service under a term of contract. Develop.

Occupied is having one's attention, mind or energy kept busy with some activity or goal. Something that consumes all of one's attention or time. To be held, filled or in use. To reside in or to live in a certain place. Take up all the available space.

Preoccupied is being deeply absorbed in thought. Having or showing excessive or compulsive concern with something. Engage or engross the interest or attention of beforehand or occupy urgently or obsessively.

Intensive is being concentrated on a single area or subject or into a short time, being very thorough or vigorous.

Spellbound is having your attention fixated as though by a spell. To render motionless, as with a fixed stare or by arousing terror or awe. To maintain the complete attention of someone because you are fascinated.

Fixated is to pay attention to something exclusively and obsessively.

Self-Directed Learning - Learning Methods - Meditation

Keep your Eye on the Ball is to continue thinking about or giving attention to something important. To stay focused.

Open your eyes really wide for 10 seconds, it's a way to jump-start your curiosity.

Pupils enlarge when people focus on tasks. Eye sensitivity correlates with improved working memory. Normally, a person's pupils naturally widen (or dilate) in low-light environments to allow more light into the eye. However, in a new study, researchers reported that a person's pupils also dilate when they are concentrating on tasks. In particular, they found that the more a person's eyes dilated during the task, the better they did on tests measuring their working memory.

Mushin is a mental state into which very highly trained martial artists are said to enter during combat. They also practice this mental state during everyday activities.

In the Midst means in the middle of doing something or what you're doing at the moment. Midst is the location of something surrounded by other things.

Busy is to be fully engaged or occupied with something. Actively doing something.

Dopamine primes the brain for enhanced vigilance. Neuroscientists discover a circuit that helps redirect attention to focus on potential threats. In this study, Tye identified two populations of neurons in the prefrontal cortex, based on other brain regions that they communicate with. One set of neurons sends information to the nucleus accumbens, which is involved in motivation and reward, and the other group relays information to the periaqueductal gray (PAG), which is part of the brainstem. The PAG is involved in defensive behavior such as freezing or running. When we perceive a potentially dangerous event, a brain region called the ventral tegmental area (VTA) sends dopamine to the prefrontal cortex, and Tye and her colleagues wanted determine how dopamine affects the two populations they had identified. To achieve that, they designed an experiment where rats were trained to recognize two visual cues, one associated with sugar water and one with a mild electrical shock. Then, they explored what happened when both cues were presented at the same time. Gaze Detection.

How the brain’s blue spot helps us focus our attention. The neurotransmitter noradrenaline regulates our brain’s sensitivity to relevant information. How can we shift from a state of inattentiveness to one of highest attention? The locus coeruleus, literally the 'blue spot,' is a tiny cluster of cells at the base of the brain. As the main source of the neurotransmitter noradrenaline, it helps us control our attentional focus. Synthesizing evidence from animal and human studies, scientists have now developed a novel framework describing the way the blue spot regulates our brain's sensitivity to relevant information in situations requiring attention.

Locus Coeruleus is a nucleus in the pons of the brainstem involved with physiological responses to stress and panic. It is a part of the reticular activating system. The locus coeruleus, which in Latin means "blue spot", is the principal site for brain synthesis of norepinephrine (noradrenaline). The locus coeruleus and the areas of the body affected by the norepinephrine it produces are described collectively as the locus coeruleus-noradrenergic system or LC-NA system. Norepinephrine may also be released directly into the blood from the adrenal medulla.

How the brain focuses on what's in mind. When holding information in mind, neural activity is more focused when and where there are bursts of gamma frequency rhythms, according to a new study. Working memory, that handy ability to consciously hold and manipulate new information in mind, takes work. In particular, participating neurons in the prefrontal cortex have to work together in synchrony to focus our thoughts, whether we're remembering a set of directions or tonight's menu specials. A new study by researchers based at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT shows how that focus emerges.

Research Identifies Changes in Neural Circuits Underlying Self-Control, Decision Making During Adolescent Brain Development. Study shows developing brain networks support cognition in youth. Researchers applied tools from network science to identify how anatomical connections in the brain develop to support neural activity underlying executive function. The human brain is organized into circuits that develop from childhood through adulthood to support executive function -- critical behaviors like self-control, decision making, and complex thought. These circuits are anchored by white matter pathways which coordinate the brain activity necessary for cognition. However, little research exists to explain how white matter matures to support activity that allows for improved executive function during adolescence -- a period of rapid brain development.

Will Power - Discipline - Self Control

Discipline is the ability to exercise control over irrelevant impulses and to restraint oneself from base desires so that you can focus more on important things, things that are more relative to your goals and things that define who you are. Discipline is when one uses reason to determine the best course of action regardless of one's desires. Discipline can help guide a persons behavior or help them set limits and learn to take better care of themselves and other people, and the world around them. Discipline can also mean a rule-following behavior that is used to regulate and control and encourage good habits and routines. Discipline may also refer to punishment that is received because of a mistake, or a type of suffering as a consequence from making a bad mistake.

Self Discipline is when a person can be motivated on their own without the help from other people, or without having to be reminded about what is needed to do or reminded to do what is right. Self-discipline involves the practice of self-restraint, controlling one's emotions, and ignoring impulses. Virtuous behavior can be described as when one's values are aligned with one's aims or goals. To do what one knows is best and to do it gladly.

Strong Willed - Executive Functions - Agency - Emotion Regulation

Will is the capability of a conscious choice with intention. A fixed and persistent intent or purpose. A decision determine by best choice.

Will Power is the trait of purposely controlling your behavior and actions. It's the power to control yourself and pull your own strings, and to act deliberately with determination. Will Power is that faculty of the mind which selects, at the moment of decision, the strongest desire from among the various desires present.

Free Will is the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate. The ability to act at one's own discretion. Free will is the ability to choose between different possible courses of action with being impeded. Freedom of Thought.

Willingly is the act of making a choice that was not coerced or forced. To act of one's own free will or on one's own accord voluntarily without hesitation, and sometimes being eager or happy to help.

Illusion of Free Will - Illusion of Choice - Determinism - Mentally Able - Human Nature - Consent - Peer Pressure - Instinct - Stimulus - Signals

Salience Network is a neural system for perceiving and responding to homeostatic demands. The salience network is a collection of brain regions working in concert to evaluate the importance of internal or external stimuli and to assist in the coordination of the brain's response to those stimuli. The salience network helps us to stop daydreaming or helps us to stop thinking about something that happened yesterday so we can focus on the task at hand. The salience network is a suite of brain regions whose cortical hubs are the anterior cingulate and ventral anterior insular cortices, which includes nodes in the amygdala, hypothalamus, ventral striatum, thalamus, and specific brainstem nuclei, coactivates in response to diverse experimental tasks and conditions, suggesting a domain-general function.

Voluntary is doing something of your own free will or by design. Something that is done by choice and not forced or compelled. Voluntary in physiology is someone who is controlled by individual volition or agency. A person who freely enlists for service. Voluntary Commitment.

Volition is the capability of making a conscious choice, or making a decision with intention. Volition or will is the cognitive process by which an individual decides on and commits to a particular course of action. It is defined as purposive striving and is one of the primary human psychological functions. Others include affect (feeling or emotion), motivation (goals and expectations), and cognition (thinking). Volitional processes can be applied consciously or they can be automatized as habits over time. Choice.

Salient is something that is most noticeable or important.

Initiative is having the will to bring something into being and to take the lead and to initiate and participate in the development of something important. Serving to set in motion the first of a series of actions for a new program or strategy that will be used for dealing with a particular problem. A readiness to embark on bold new ventures.

Inhibited - Think for Yourself - Resilience - Self-Manage - Confidence - Executive Functions - Intuition

Delay and Refrain and Think Twice.

Synchronic Regulation uses willpower to resist current temptation. Diachronic Regulation implements a plan to avoid future temptation.

Sovereignty - Autonomy - Agency - Liberty - Determined

Attentional Control refers to an individual's capacity to choose what they pay attention to and what they ignore. It is also known as endogenous attention or executive attention. In lay terms, attentional control can be described as an individual's ability to concentrate. Primarily mediated by the frontal areas of the brain including the anterior cingulate cortex, attentional control is thought to be closely related to other executive functions such as working memory.

Distractions - Stimulus

Control is having the power to direct or determine. Having great skillfulness and knowledge of some subject or activity. The ability to determine the behavior or supervise the running of. Have a firm understanding or knowledge of; be on top of.

Self-Control is an aspect of inhibitory control, is the ability to control one's emotions and behavior in the face of temptations and impulses. As an executive function, self-control is a cognitive process that is necessary for regulating one's behavior in order to achieve goals. A related concept in psychology is emotional self-regulation. Self-control is like a muscle. In the short term, overuse of self-control will lead to depletion. However, in the long term, the use of self-control can strengthen and improve over time.

Self-Control is not about sacrificing pleasure, it's about understand what pleasure is and using pleasure effectively as a reward for good behavior and not using pleasure as a reward for bad behavior that wastes time and does more harm than good.

People make more patient decisions when shown the benefits first. Focusing immediately on the benefits of waiting might help people improve their self-control. Stimulus.

Self-Regulation is the ability to calm yourself down when you're upset and cheer yourself up when you're down. If, like most of us, you can stand to improve self-regulation skill, a good place to start is an understanding of the biology and function of emotions in general and specifically feelings.

Early self-regulation boosts children's educational success. A study has shown that teaching children how to manage their attention and impulses in primary school has a positive long-term effect on their later educational success. Self-regulation, i.e., the ability to manage attention, emotions and impulses, as well as to pursue individual goals with perseverance, is not a skill that we usually associate with young children. The training units were based on the MCII Strategy ("Mental Contrasting with Implementation Intentions"), which has already been the subject of excellent research studies in adults and older students. The teachers presented the abstract strategy in a playful manner using a picture book and the role model of a hurdle jumper. In a first step, the children imagined the positive effects of reaching a goal. They contrasted them with the obstacles that might face them on the way ("Mental Contrasting"). The children then identified specific behaviors to face the obstacles and develop "when-then" plans ("Implementation Intention").

Mental Contrasting is a self-regulation strategy that is required for strong goal commitment. In mental contrasting, individuals firstly imagine a desired future or health goal that contrasted with the reality proceeding the goal state, which after reflection is viewed as an obstacle.

Three factors may predict college students' loss of self-control. Researchers determined willingness to try new things along with parental attachment could be indicators of self-control among first-year students. Self-control -- the ability to exercise personal restraint, inhibit impulsivity and make purposeful decisions -- in that first year partly depends on a student's willingness to try new things, including things adults would call "good." Joining a club that sparks a new interest, playing a new intramural sport or finding a new group of friends may be just as indicative of a college freshman's loss of self-control as drinking or drug use, according to new research at West Virginia University.

Restraint - Refrain - Delay

Restrain is to keep under control or keep in check or keep your cool. To place limits on extent or access. Restrain is to be in control of impulses. To hold back and place limits on particular feelings that are intrusive or detrimental. Restraint is the act of controlling by restraining someone or something. The discipline in personal and social activities. A rule or condition that limits unchecked freedom.

Refrain is to resist doing something. To restrain oneself from consuming or doing something.

Focused - Mindfulness - Simplify - Core Values - Abstinence - Impulses - Pleasures - Procrastination

Forgo is to do without something or cease to hold or adhere to something. To lose something or lose the right to something.

Deter is to prevent and show opposition to something harmful. To turn away from being manipulated.

Unproductive Delays - Delaying Tactics - Construction Delays - Frivolous Lawsuits

Delay is to cause an activity or a decision to be slowed down or put off until a later time. To act later than planned, scheduled, or required.

Temperance is defined as moderation or voluntary self-restraint and self-regulation. It is the trait of avoiding excesses and refraining from giving in to unwise desires such as overindulgence in food and drink, or extravagant luxury or splurging. It's having control over one's actions, thoughts, or feelings, and having the restraint from arrogance by practicing humility, modesty, forgiveness, prudence, calmness and equanimity. Temperance comes from educating yourself about being human. Just having self control is worthless if you're not controlling the things that matter, so you have to learn what matters, and fully understand why some things matter. Simplicity - Virtue.

Rigour refers to a process of adhering absolutely to certain constraints, or the practice of maintaining strict consistency with certain predefined parameters. Hold back. Restrict.

Delayed Gratification is the ability to resist the temptation for an immediate reward and wait for a later reward. Generally, delayed gratification is associated with resisting a smaller but more immediate reward in order to receive a larger or more enduring reward later. Knowing how to control yourself for the benefit of your partner instead of just thinking of yourself. A growing body of literature has linked the ability to delay gratification to a host of other positive outcomes, including academic success, physical health, psychological health, and social competence.

Inhibitory Control - Emotionless - Investing

Temptation is to seduce, lure or entice someone away from duty, principles, or proper conduct. The desire to have or do something that you know you should avoid. The act of influencing by exciting hope or desire.

Stoicism is having an indifference to pleasure or pain. 

Slow is moving at a low speed and not moving too quickly and taking a comparatively long time.

Prudence is the ability to recognize the appropriate course of action to be taken in a given situation at the appropriate time. Knowing how to avoid embarrassment or distress. The ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason.

Discretion is the freedom to act or judge on one's own. The power of making free choices unconstrained by external agencies. Knowing how to avoid embarrassment or distress. The trait of judging wisely and objectively.

Trait Impulsivity can be measured by the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, which assesses motor, attention, and non-planning impulsiveness components.

Rats trade initial rewards for long-term learning opportunities. When deciding on responses to a new stimulus, slower initial response times can maximize long-term reward through learning. Scientists have provided evidence for the cognitive control of learning in rats, showing they can estimate the long-term value of learning and adapt their decision-making strategy to take advantage of learning opportunities. Strategically managing learning during perceptual decision making.

Commitment Device is a means with which to lock yourself into a course of action that you might not otherwise choose but that produces a desired result". In other words, a commitment device is a "way to change one's own incentives to make an otherwise empty promise credible".

Dedicated is devoted to a cause or ideal or purpose. Solemnly dedicated to or set apart for a high purpose. Give entirely to a specific person, activity, or cause.

Devoted is zealous enthusiasm or affection. Set aside or apart for a specific purpose or use.

Committed is bound or obligated, as under a pledge to a particular cause, action, or attitude.

Pledge is a promise solemnly and formally.

Oath - Goals - Contracts - Responsibility - Incentives - Coping

Self-Mortification is the subjugation of appetites or desires by self-denial or self-discipline as an aspect of religious devotion.

Austerity is sternness or severity of manner or attitude. An extreme plainness and simplicity of style or appearance.

Stubborn - Attention Seeking

Attending is the act of being present. To take charge of or deal with something important. To work for someone or be a servant to someone. The process whereby a person concentrates on some features of the environment to the relative exclusion of others.

Diligence is conscientiousness in paying proper attention to a task and giving the degree of care required in a given situation. Persevering determination to perform a task. A diligent effort.

Vigilance is the process of paying close and continuous attention. Vigilant attentiveness. Carefully observant or attentive and on the lookout for possible danger.

Attentive is giving care or giving close and thoughtful attention. Taking heed or listening.

Don't Let Your Guard Down means not to get too lazy or be too relaxed or too complacent. Don't stop being careful or stop being alert and cautious about potential trouble or danger. Don't become less guarded and don't stop being safe.

Put your Mind to it is to decide that you are going to do something and to put a lot of effort into doing it. You can absolutely accomplish anything you want if you put your mind to it and work hard. If you really want something, then go for it. Just remember that there are no guarantees and that you will make a lot of mistakes along the way.

Intent is an anticipated outcome that is intended or that guides your planned actions.

Enkrateia is having power over oneself, self control.

Promise is a verbal commitment by one person to another agreeing to do or not to do something in the future. Goal.

Conducive is making a certain situation or outcome likely or possible.

Get a Hold of Yourself is to get control of ones' thoughts and emotions and stop behaving in a foolish or uncontrolled way.

Delayed Exchange Test is to see if  a person is willing to wait for a bigger reward by being able to control an impulse to take a quick reward that is less in value or size.

Object Permanence - Impulse Control - Tolerance

Patience is the state of endurance under difficult circumstances, which can mean persevering in the face of delay or provocation without acting on negative annoyance/anger; or exhibiting forbearance when under strain, especially when faced with longer-term difficulties. Patience is the level of endurance one can have before negativity. It is also used to refer to the character trait of being steadfast. Antonyms include hastiness and impetuousness.

Careful is being cautiously attentive and unhurried and acting with care and dignity. Showing careful forethought and being mindful of the future.

Consider is to perceive or think about something in a particular way; deem to be. Focus on as an example. Look at attentively. Give careful consideration to. Show consideration for; take into account. Think about carefully; weigh. Judge or regard; look upon. Analyze carefully; study to find a solution. Regard or treat with consideration, respect, and esteem.

When to say yes and when to say no. People who enjoy helping other people will most likely say yes when they are asked to do something, such as help someone with a task. But kindness can sometimes be exploited. You have to understand what you are saying yes to, and you have to know what you are saying no to, because if you said yes to something, that means that you also said no to something. Each person has their own priorities and their own responsibilities, so each person is responsible for how they spend their time. You can quickly assess a situation and discuss a logical solution, and then say yes, or no, or maybe, or, not now. But the key is being aware and being conscious of you decisions. You can't control what you fail to acknowledge. The power is in your hands, but you must wield this power, and wield your power with a purpose.

Wield is to have and exercise and handle something effectively. To maintain or manage.

Handle is to be in charge of something, or to act on or to dispose of something effectively. A way of understanding or controlling something. to show and train. To interact in a certain way. To act on something verbally or in some form of artistic expression. To touch, lift, or to hold something with the hands.

Exert is to put to use. To make a great effort at a mental or physical task.

Motivation - Addictions - Agency - Human Power - Potential Energy

Just like humans, more intelligent jays have greater self-control. A study has found that Eurasian jays can pass a version of the 'marshmallow test' -- and those with the greatest self-control also score the highest on intelligence tests. Self-control -- the ability to resist temptation in favour of a better but delayed reward -- is a vital skill that underpins effective decision-making and future planning.

Steel will or will power should never be confused with blind faith.

Freewill - Rush (youtube) - There are those who think that life, Has nothing left to chance, A host of holy horrors, To direct our aimless dance, A planet of playthings, We dance on the strings, Of powers we cannot perceive, The stars aren't aligned, Or the gods are malign, Blame is better to give than receive, You can choose a ready guide, In some celestial voice, If you choose not to decide, You still have made a choice, You can choose from phantom fears, And kindness that can kill, I will choose a path that's clear, I will choose free will, There are those who think that, They've been dealt a losing hand, The cards were stacked against them, They weren't born in Lotus-Land, All preordained, A prisoner in chains, A victim of venomous fate, Kicked in the face, You can't pray for a place, In heaven's unearthly estate, You can choose a ready guide, In some celestial voice, If you choose not to decide, You still have made a choice, You can choose from phantom fears, And kindness that can kill, I will choose a path that's clear, I will choose free will, Each of us, A cell of awareness, Imperfect and incomplete, Genetic blends, With uncertain ends, On a fortune hunt, That's far too fleet, You can choose a ready guide, In some celestial voice, If you choose not to decide, You still have made a choice, You can choose from phantom fears, And kindness that can kill, I will choose a path that's clear, I will choose free will.

Free Will is an Illusion

Illusion of Control is the tendency for people to overestimate their ability to control things externally or internally.

Humans have at least some degree of free will, but free will does not say that every decision you make is of your own free will, because your free will can be influenced and manipulated in all kinds of ways. Money can influence your decisions,
love can influence your decisions, empathy can influence your decisions, fear can influence your decisions, faith and beliefs can influence your decisions, the lack of knowledge and the lack of experience can influence your decisions, boredom can influence your decisions, interest, incentives and motivation can influence your decisions, instincts can influence your decisions, lies or propaganda can influence your decisions, powerful people can influence your decisions, your ego can influence your decisions and thinking, the information you receive can influence your decisions, the signals you receive can influence your decisions, targeted marketing can influence your decisions, discrimination and abuse can influence your decisions, emotions can influence your decisions, drugs or addictions can influence your decisions, a reward can influence your decisions, your dreams can influence your decisions and your thoughts. Your body can also influence your decisions in many ways. Your hormones can influence your decisions, a disease or an infection can influence your decisions, mental disorders can influence your decisions, a brain injury can influence your decisions, the lack of sleep can influence your decisions, the weather can influence your decisions, your subconscious can influence your decisions, a parasite can influence your decisions, your memory and your attention can influence your decisions. And there is also luck and uncertainty. Even lucid dreaming is an illusion of control, because you can't control everything in your dream. So you see, free will isn't free, because you're never truly free from influences. The best thing to do is to continually educate yourself so that knowledge and experience guides your decisions more than irrelevant information and irrelevant feelings do. Will power is not a total illusion, but it can be. Autonomy is only beneficial when you are smart enough to make good decisions. And sometimes you just have to go for it and take a risk. And intuition is sometimes the only thing that you have to go on. So you can wait for a sign, or you can just go for it and figure things out along the way. Of course, if you have the time and the know how, you can make good plans. But maybe you don't have the time to make good plans, or maybe you don't have a good idea about what you want to do, so you just have to go for it and take a risk and hope that you will figure things out along the way, or, just get lucky. Of course you will make mistakes, and hindsight will let you know that you could have done things better or made better decisions. But the only way for you to know this is that you had to take that first step and you went for it and you dived right in. Sometimes you have to do that. And when you learn about other people throughout human history, you'll learn that millions of other people also went for it, otherwise, you would not be here.

To say "I do what I want" is a lie. This is not to say that freedom of choice doesn't exist, it's just that the reasoning behind the choice is not always clearly visible. Though mindfulness is the key to having control, it will always be the reasons why that will determine if your control was accurate.

I am the captain of my ship, but morons are planning a mutiny, and we can't abandon ship because we have no life rafts.

To be the captain of your own ship is to be in charge of yourself and to know where you are headed. It's taking full responsibility of your ship, which in this case is your body, and taking full responsibility for your crew, which in this case is your friends and family. You take full responsibility for your decisions.

I like to say that, I am the master of my destiny, but that would be foolish of me considering I don't know everything and I can't be aware of everything.

"I didn't consciously choose my path, it seems that my path was chosen for me. I didn't choose to make mistakes, it seems my mistakes were chosen for me to make. I made my own decisions, but my choices were limited, so even my decisions were influenced, and my autonomy, free will or agency were never fully in my control. So I'm either a victim of chance, or just a pawn in some grand scheme."

Who's making the choice when I'm being spontaneous? Who's making the choice when I'm not fully aware? Who's making the choice about what I think about next? Was it fate or was it an accident? Did I do that? Or was that just my physical self, a self that is controlled by many influences? I there for can't honestly say that I actually wrote that or did that. Just like with a flower. A flower can't say I bloomed, unless the flower is an idiot.

No one can see beyond a choice they don't understand, which means that people are unable to truly comprehend or predict the consequences of a decision that they don't fully grasp. They have trouble seeing past the limitations of their own understanding when making a choice, thus it's extremely difficult to anticipate the full impact of a decision. Having a limited perspective is when you lack knowledge or context about a situation, which means your ability to foresee the potential outcomes is significantly reduced. The importance of understanding is needed to make informed decisions, and it's crucial to deeply understand all the different aspects of a choice before judging its implications. Blind spots in decision-making can create personal biases, and a lack of complete information can lead to unforeseen consequences.

Procrastination - Delaying - Theory of Mind - Self-Determination Theory - Life Test

Everyone likes to pretend that our decisions are our own, but the facts are, we can't always be aware of everything that influences our decisions. We want to feel in control, but we can't control everything. We know the benefits of the good decisions that we make, and see the consequences of our bad decisions and mistakes that we make. But we rarely see the whole picture or fully understand the full meaning of our existence. So we will use our will power to the best of our ability. But we have to fully understand that we can't always be aware of everything that influences our decisions. We need a lot of luck and we need divine intervention from time to time. Not everything is in our hands, but we do have a lot in our hands that we need to pay attention to. So we must keep learning and stay informed of our choices, that is the only logical choice we all have. Our will is our power, but power has responsibilities.

New theory suggests that decisions are made unconsciously, then about half a second later become conscious. Consciousness is your awareness of yourself and the world around you. This awareness is subjective and unique to you. Depersonalization.

Sometimes I don't know what I'm doing until after I have done something. That's when I realize what I was really doing. I get lucky sometimes. To say I Did it My Way is an over statement. I am compelled and motivated to learn, but I can't say that I am the only source of that motivation, or can I say that what I learned is what I was trying to learn from the beginning, because when I'm trying to learn one thing, I sometimes end up learning something else. Like a lesson within a lesson.

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Do you want the pain of discipline, or the pain of regret and disappointment from having the lack of discipline?

Determinism is the philosophical theory that all events, including moral choices, are completely determined by previously existing causes. Determinism is usually understood to preclude free will because it entails that humans cannot act otherwise than they do because they have not learned otherwise. The theory holds that the universe is utterly rational because complete knowledge of any given situation assures that unerring knowledge of its future is also possible. Some philosophers suggest variants around this basic definition. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have sprung from diverse and sometimes overlapping motives and considerations. The opposite of determinism is some kind of indeterminism (otherwise called nondeterminism). Determinism is often contrasted with free will. Indeterminism is the idea that events or certain events, or events of certain types, are not caused, or not caused deterministically but random. Some things just happen for no reason? No reasons that you know of, that is. Determinism is the philosophical doctrine that all events transpire in virtue of some necessity and are therefore inevitable. Traditionally, the view relies on strict notions of causality, and most philosophical arguments in its favor have attempted at clear definitions of cause and effect as a basis for the belief that determinism is true. You can't control everything and you can't be aware of everything.

Deterministic is relating to the philosophical doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes regarded as external to the will.

Probability - Coincidence - Fate - Destiny - Determined - Rules to Obey - Life Simulation

It is not unusual to think that people don't have free will or autonomy, after all, humans have many different things that influences our thoughts and our behaviors and actions, and, there is also the possibility of divine intervention. Maybe the decision to go left instead of right was not your decision, maybe God helped nudge you a little, and you may never know the reasons why. Or maybe it's intuition? But of course, it's all relative to a particular situation. You can't be aware of everything that influences your decisions. So where do we go from here? We keep learning and educating ourselves so that we can become more aware of all the things that influence our decisions, and hopefully, this will help us make better decisions.

Praxeology is the deductive study of human action based on the notion that humans engage in purposeful behavior, as opposed to reflexive behavior like sneezing and inanimate behavior. According to its theorists, with the action axiom as the starting point, it is possible to draw conclusions about human behavior that are both objective and universal. For example, the notion that humans engage in acts of choice implies that they have preferences, and this must be true for anyone who exhibits intentional behavior.

Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will (wiki)

Locus of Control is the degree to which people believe that they have control over the outcome of events in their lives, as opposed to external forces beyond their control, and sometimes blames outside forces for everything. Individuals with a strong internal locus of control believe events in their life are primarily a result of their own actions. People with an internal locus of control tend to praise or blame themselves and their abilities. People with a strong external locus of control tend to praise or blame external factors such as the teacher or the exam.

Attention Span - Loss of Focus - Distracted - Tuning Out - Spaced Out

Attention Span is the length of time that a person can concentrate on some idea or activity without being distracted, or without losing focus, clarity, purpose or goals.

Attention Deficit - Default Network - Tune Out - Disorientation - Technology Addiction - Memory Span - Preoccupied - Sleep Walking - Illusion of Self Control - Alarm Fatigue - Brain Fog

The Average Human Attention Span is around 4 Minutes, and advertisers and governments know this. Sometimes people can only focus for a small amount of time before they space out or become confused or distracted. Attention span is worse than it was 20 years ago. Half of our distractions are self-generated. Attention spans have gone from 2 1/2 minutes to just 43 seconds over the last 20 years. 9-10 years old the average Attention Span is 20-30 minutes. 11-12 years old the average Attention Span is 25-35 minutes. 13-15 years old the average Attention Span is 30-40 minutes. 16+ years old the average Attention Span is 32-50+ minutes. Attention Deficit.

Inattentive kids show worse grades later in life. Teaching children how to focus and how to sustain focus is extremely important to learning, just as long as students are learning the right things at the right time.

Inattentive is showing a lack of care or attention or just not listening.

Why do we overindulge? Being distracted while engaging in enjoyable activities can reduce satisfaction, lead to overcompensation. If you tend to do other things or get distracted while eating dinner, you may be running the risk of over-consuming everyday pleasures later, possibly because the distraction caused you to enjoy yourself less, according to new research.

In One Ear and Out the Other is a term that means that a person was not listening or paying attention to what was said, information seems to enter one ear and then exit the other ear without the information being processed. Sometimes the person is ignoring or dismissing or disregarding what was said, so what ever is said, will be forgotten almost immediately after being heard. You can't hear what you refuse to understand, and you can't understand what you can't hear.

Talking to the Wall means that someone does not listen to you or react to you when you talk. No matter how hard you try to explain to someone, they refuse to understand even a little of what you're trying to say. It's like you're talking to the wall because no one else is there except for you. The wall of ignorance is like talking to a brick wall.

Off Track is defined as someone or something who is not moving forward properly or who is not going in the right direction or has gone off topic or is no longer on the subject being discussed.

Digress is to lose clarity or turn aside especially from the main subject of attention or course of argument in writing, thinking, or speaking. Change the Subject is to begin talking about something different, especially to avoid embarrassment or the divulgence of confidences.

Distracted is being unable to concentrate because one's mind is preoccupied. Having the attention diverted by known reasons or by unknown reasons.

Interruption Science is the interdisciplinary scientific study concerned with how interruptions affect human performance, and the development interventions to lessen the disruption caused by interruptions. Interruption science is branch of human factors psychology and emerged from human–computer interaction and cognitive psychology. The brain never stops.

Highway Hypnosis is an altered mental state in which an automobile driver can travel lengthy distances, responding to external events in the expected, safe, and correct manner with no recollection of having consciously done so. In this state, the driver's conscious mind is fully focused elsewhere, while seemingly still processing the information needed to drive safely. Highway hypnosis or white line fever is a manifestation of the common process of automaticity.

Sleep Walking - Amnesia - Tune Out - Ruminate

How do you know when your brain switches to automatic pilot or auto mode? Mindfulness.

Mental Distractions are when an individual is thinking about a past event or daydreaming and not paying attention. A person can be doing one thing while thinking about something else, which means that you are not present here, or in the present moment. Though your body is here, but your mind is somewhere else.

Mind Wandering - Spacing Out -  Language Controls Thoughts - Hypnagogia - Default Mode Network

Automaticity is the ability to do things without occupying the mind with the low-level details required, allowing it to become an automatic response pattern or habit. It is usually the result of learning, repetition, and practice. Examples of tasks carried out by 'muscle memory' often involve some degree of automaticity. Examples of automaticity are common activities such as walking, speaking, bicycle-riding, assembly-line work, and driving a car (the last of these sometimes being termed "highway hypnosis"). After an activity is sufficiently practiced, it is possible to focus the mind on other activities or thoughts while undertaking an automatized activity (for example, holding a conversation or planning a speech while driving a car).

Autonomous - Multitasking - Will Power Illusion

Autonoetic Consciousness is the human ability to mentally place oneself in the past and future (i.e. mental time travel) or in counterfactual situations (i.e. alternative outcomes), and to thus be able to examine one's own thoughts. One's sense of self affects their behavior, in the present, past and future. It relates to how one reflects on their own past behavior, how they feel about it, and this in turn determines if they do it again. It is episodic memory that deals with self-awareness, memories of the self and inward thoughts that may be projected onto future actions of an individual.

You can't be aware of your own thoughts all the time. Eventually your consciousness will become unaware of itself, and you will be unaware of your own thoughts. This is why being mindful a few times a day is extremely important. We understand the fact that that we can't always be aware of everything all the time. Day dreaming and distractions is an everyday occurrence, and the brain needs to focus and be able to change focus when needed. So the dilemma is, be aware or be unaware. You need to be aware. When you're not aware of your own thoughts, then who's doing the thinking? You have to remember that the brain never stops thinking. It's almost impossible to stop thinking, unless you can imagine that words do not exist, because you can't have thoughts without words. You need to be in control of your inner monologue and understand the context of your thoughts. This is the great awakening. Consciousness is powerful. And language is the code that unlocks consciousness. Language also helps us to learn and gain knowledge. Language is the key. If you don't use language productively, you will suffer from unproductive thoughts and unproductive actions. When we finally understand the power of knowledge, then we will finally understand. There is an immense amount of power in knowledge. But you must deliberately seek it if you want to find the most valuable knowledge.

Change Blindness is a perceptual phenomenon that occurs when a change in a visual stimulus is introduced and the observer does not notice it.

Change Blindness Test (youtube)

One Thought Leads to Another - (retrace your thoughts and go back over again, and then reassemble mentally).

Monkey Mind describes a state of restlessness, capriciousness, and lack of control in one's thoughts.

Cocktail Party Effect is the phenomenon of being able to focus one's auditory attention on a particular stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli, much the same way that a partygoer can focus on a single conversation in a noisy room. This effect is what allows most people to "tune into" a single voice and "tune out" all others. It may also describe a similar phenomenon that occurs when one may immediately detect words of importance originating from unattended stimuli, for instance hearing one's name in another conversation.

Gorillas In The Midst (youtube)

Complex Span Test involves remembering the location of an item despite distractions.

Rhythm or Drift? New tools can help better understand human attention. Accepted theories of how people's visual attention behaves in situations with lots of stimuli, such as crossing a busy street, may need to be rethought. We cannot accurately determine whether attention rhythmically switches between 'threats' and 'opportunities' or drifts less predictably, as people scan their surroundings.

Denial or lack of Knowledge?

Inattentional Blindness is a psychological lack of attention that is not associated with any vision defects or deficits. It may be further defined as the event in which an individual fails to perceive an unexpected stimulus that is in plain sight. When it simply becomes impossible for one to attend to all the stimuli in a given situation, a temporary blindness effect can take place as a result; that is, individuals fail to see objects or stimuli that are unexpected and quite often salient or most noticeable or important and having the quality that thrusts itself into attention. Passive.

Space Cadet is a person who spaces out a lot and becomes mentally disengaged or inattentive or is mentally absent, often appearing to be lost in thought or not fully aware of their surroundings, as if they are floating away into space, or having their minds in outer space while their bodies remain earthbound. A space cadet is someone who is not always paying attention or is daydreaming too much, which can sometimes be perceived as someone who is out of touch with reality or unaware of their surroundings, as though they are high on drugs, or suffering from fatigue, lack of sleep or boredom. A space cadet can also mean a trainee astronaut, or an enthusiast for space travel, typically a young person.

Absence Seizures are are characterized by a brief loss and return of consciousness, generally not followed by a period of lethargy (i.e. without a notable postictal state). Absence seizures are most common in children. They affect both sides of the brain.

Attention Deficit is characterized by problems paying attention, excessive activity, or difficulty controlling behavior which is not appropriate for a person's age.

Attention Deficit Disorder is characterized by problems paying attention, excessive activity, or difficulty controlling behavior, which is not appropriate for a person's age. ADD symptoms appear before a person is twelve years old, are present for more than six months, and cause problems in at least two settings (such as school, home, or recreational activities). In children, problems paying attention may result in poor school performance. Although it causes impairment, particularly in modern society, many children with ADHD have a good attention span for tasks they find interesting.

Brain Disorders - Toxins - Processed Food - Body Burden - Dumbed Down Education - Neuron Development - Fast Editing - Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders among children, but it's also known to be common among people 18 and older, affecting hundreds of millions of people. ADHD is a chronic neurodevelopmental condition effecting the way one's brain grows and develops. At least 6.1 million kids in the U.S. between the ages of 2-17, have an inability to concentrate or focus; have a hard time resisting temptation, have trouble following through on instructions or finishing tasks, have trouble with organizing thoughts, experience hyperactivity and frequent movements, have a tendency to squirm or fidget, daydream a lot, forget or lose things often, talk or interrupt people often.

One in two children with ADHD experience emotional problems. Scientists have shown that problems regulating emotions -- which can manifest as depression, anxiety and explosive outbursts -- may be a core symptom of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD.

Why children can't pay attention to the task at hand. Scientists have learned that children find it hard to focus on a task, and often take in information that won't help them complete their assignment. Researchers found that this 'distributed attention' wasn't because children's brains weren't mature enough to understand the task or pay attention, and it wasn't because they were easily distracted and lacked the control to focus. It now appears that kids distribute their attention broadly either out of simple curiosity or because their working memory isn't developed enough to complete a task without 'over exploring.

Lack of focus doesn't equal lack of intelligence -- it's proof of an intricate brain. In an earlier psychology study, the researchers established that people can separately control how much they focus (by enhancing relevant information) and how much they filter (by tuning out distraction). The team's new research unveils the process by which the brain coordinates these two critical functions. In the same way that we bring together more than 50 muscles to perform a physical task like using chopsticks, our study found that we can coordinate multiple different forms of attention in order to perform acts of mental dexterity.

Early vocabulary size is genetically linked to ADHD, literacy, and cognition. Are genetic factors underlying children's language development linked to later-life outcomes? In a genome-wide analysis, an international research team found genetic associations between children's early vocabulary size and later-life ADHD, literacy, and general cognition. These associations changed dynamically across the first three years of life. Both producing more words in infancy and understanding fewer words in toddlerhood were associated with a higher risk of ADHD. Children typically start to utter their first words between 10 and 15 months of age. At around two years of age, they may produce between 100 -- 600 words, and understand many more. Each child embarks on its own developmental path of language learning, resulting in large individual differences. "Some variation in language development can be related to variation in the genetic code stored in our cells," says senior researcher Beate St Pourcain, lead scientist on the study.

Neurodevelopmental disorders are mostly caused by corporate pesticides and toxins that were injected into food, water and the environment without the consent of the people who were exposed to these poisons. The scumbags in power believe that if they can't control people with misinformation, than they will control people using contaminations that degrade the human brain. These psychopaths only care about money. People in power are more damaged than the people they damage. People in power are not just abusing people mentally but physically. They're not just abusing the mind with misinformation, but injuring the brain using toxins. Not just psychological attacks, but physiological attacks. Instead of educating people, they are poisoning people and drugging people.

Brain Fog is when you experience confusion, forgetfulness along with having a lack of focus and the lack of mental clarity, including dissociation and fatigue. Brain Fog can be caused by overworking, lack of sleep, stress, viruses, lack of serotonin or toxins.

Micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals, show benefit for children with ADHD and emotional dysregulation. Evidence from a randomized clinical trial shows broad-spectrum micronutrient supplementation with all known vitamins and essential minerals resulted in global improvement of attention and mood based on blinded clinician ratings. A study reports that children with ADHD and emotional dysregulation randomized to take a micronutrient formula were three times more likely to show symptomatic improvement on blinded clinician ratings, compared to those in the placebo group (54% versus 18%). The micronutrient formula, consisting of all known vitamins and essential minerals, was administered for eight weeks.

Managing Attention Deficit Disorder by training the brain. Scientists explored a technique called 'neurofeedback,' which enables ADHD patients to train their attention, based on instant feedback from the level of their brain activity. The team of neuroscientists found that not only did the training have a positive effect on patients' concentration abilities, but also that the attention improvement was closely linked to an enhanced response from the brain -- the P3 wave -- which is known to reflect integration of information in the brain. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) affects about 7% of children, with a two out of three chance of persisting into adulthood. Neurofeedback is a type of neurocognitive intervention based on the training of "real-time" brain signals. Using an electroencephalogram (EEG) with 64 sensors, the scientists capture the electrical activity of cortical neurons and focus their analysis on the spontaneous Alpha rhythm (with frequency around 10 Hertz), coupling its amplitude fluctuation to a video game that the patients can control with the power of their attention. The aim of neurofeedback is to make the patients aware of the moments when they are no longer attentive. With practice, brain networks then "learn" to reduce attentional lapses through neuroplasticity.

Our ability to focus may falter after eating one meal high in saturated fat. Previous research has suggested that food high in saturated fat can drive up inflammation throughout the body, and possibly the brain. Fatty acids also can cross the blood-brain barrier. Study also looks at effect of leaky gut on concentration. If the women had high levels of endotoxemia, it also wiped out the between-meal differences. They were performing poorly no matter what type of fat they ate. Endotoxemia is the change in the permeability of the intestinal flora, which allows the passage of lipopolysaccharide derived from intestinal bacteria into the bloodstream.

Mind-Wandering is the experience of thoughts not remaining on a single topic for a long period of time, particularly when people are engaged in an attention-demanding task. Mind-wandering tends to occur during driving, reading and other activities where vigilance may be low. In these situations, people do not remember what happened in the surrounding environment because they are preoccupied with their thoughts. This is known as the decoupling hypothesis. Studies using event-related potentials have quantified the extent that mind-wandering reduces the cortical processing of the external environment. When thoughts are unrelated to the task at hand, the brain processes both task-relevant and unrelated sensory information in a less detailed manner.

Meditation - Highway Hypnosis - Multitasking - Disorientation

"When I let my mind wander, I try not to get involved, I just let my thinking go where it wants to, just to see where it takes me."

Default Mode Network is shown to be active when a person is not focused on the outside world and the brain is at wakeful rest, such as during daydreaming and mind-wandering. But it is also active when the individual is thinking about others, thinking about themselves, remembering the past, and planning for the future. DMN is a network of interacting brain regions known to have activity highly correlated with each other and distinct from other networks in the brain.

Default is an option that is selected automatically unless an alternative is specified. Default in computing is to assume a particular value when none other is specified.

Opting Out - Self Control

Dorsal Attention Network is a large-scale brain network that is primarily composed of the intraparietal sulcus and frontal eye fields. It is named and most known for its role in voluntary orienting of visuospatial attention. As the IPS and FEF were noticed to be activated during many attention-demanding tasks, this network was sometimes referred to as the task-positive network to contrast it against the task-negative network, or default mode network. However, this dichotomy is now considered misleading, because the default mode network can be active in certain cognitive tasks. The frontoparietal network is activated when attention is focused on external cues, the salience network is engaged when attention is directed to relevant events, and the default mode network is recruited when attention is focused internally.

Concentration Exercises - Activities to improve Focus - Juggling - Focus Games - Games - Filtering - Noise Cancelation - Spatial Intelligence - Multi-Tasking

The brain activity behind mind wandering. From ripples to daydreams. Researchers have found that a specific pattern of brain activity, known as 'sharp-wave ripples,' is associated with thoughts that wander from the present situation. This activity begins in the hippocampus, a crucial brain region for memory formation and recall, and is linked to more vivid and less desirable thoughts. A better understanding of the relationship between sharp-wave ripples and these kinds of thoughts might be helpful for treating related conditions. Attention Problems.

Task-Positive Network is a network of areas in the human brain that typically responds with activation increases to attention-demanding tasks in functional imaging studies. The task-positive network encompasses regions of the dorsal attention system, but in addition includes dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal regions, the insular cortex, and the SMA/pre-SMA. Notably, the nodes of this network are also correlated during rest (i.e., in the absence of any task). The task-positive network is anti-correlated with the default mode network.

Brain Areas (image of attention network) - Executive Functions

Task-Negative main function is to reorient attention towards salient stimuli. TN is considered to be involved mostly, if not entirely, in involuntary actions. The neural network is right hemisphere lateralized and includes the right temporal-parietal junction and the right ventral frontal cortex. This system shows activity increases upon detection of salient targets, especially when they appear in unexpected locations. Activity increases also are observed in the ventral system after abrupt changes in sensory stimuli, at the onset and offset of task blocks, and at the end of a completed trial.

Resting State fMRI is a method of functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI that is used in brain mapping to evaluate regional interactions that occur in a resting or task-negative state, when an explicit task is not being performed. A number of resting-state conditions are identified in the brain, one of which is the default mode network. These resting brain state conditions are observed through changes in blood flow in the brain which creates what is referred to as a blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal that can be measured using fMRI. Because brain activity is intrinsic, present even in the absence of an externally prompted task, any brain region will have spontaneous fluctuations in BOLD signal.

New clues about how chemicals released by brain cells regulate our attention span. Scientists find new evidence to explain how we pay attention. To communicate with one another, neurons in the brain and nervous system release chemicals called neurotransmitters that relay messages from one cell to another. Neurotransmitters are crucial for brain function and regulating all bodily functions, ranging from breathing and heart rate to reproduction. These chemicals also coordinate cognitive processes that enable us to focus on important information within the constant barrage of stimuli the brain receives from the external environment, otherwise known as our attention span. Researchers have long thought that our attention span was directed by only one neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, which excites neurons and causes them to fire electrical signals. However, recent work suggests that attention could require another neurotransmitter, gamma-aminobutyric acid or GABA, which inhibits neurons from receiving and sending messages. The team demonstrated for the first time that GABA works together with acetylcholine in a precise sequence to regulate the transmission of signals from a part of the brain's information processing network, called the claustrum. Hidden deep in the brain, the claustrum is a thin sheet-like structure that receives and processes information from different parts of it. The claustrum helps to regulate concentration, but its exact role remains unknown.

Absent-Mindedness is where a person shows inattentive or forgetful behavior. It can have three different causes: A low level of attention ("blanking" or "zoning out"), intense attention to a single object of focus (hyperfocus) that makes a person oblivious to events around him or her; unwarranted distraction of attention from the object of focus by irrelevant thoughts or environmental events. Gibberish.

When your attention shifts from one place to another, your brain blinks. The blinks are momentary unconscious gaps in visual perception. Attention is beneficial because it increases our ability to detect visual signals even when we are looking in a different direction. Why we Hear some sounds but not other sounds.

Defense Mechanisms is an unconscious psychological mechanism that reduces anxiety arising from unacceptable or potentially harmful stimuli.

Ovsiankina Effect is the tendency to pick up an interrupted action again when it has still not been achieved an interrupted task, even without incentive, values as a "quasi-need". It creates intrusive thoughts, aimed at taking up the task again. Remembering of the unfinished action over a vacant one.

Attention Restoration Theory asserts that people can concentrate better after spending time in nature, or even looking at scenes of nature. Natural environments abound with "soft fascinations" which a person can reflect upon in "effortless attention", such as clouds moving across the sky, leaves rustling in a breeze or water bubbling over rocks in a stream.

Selective Attention Test (youtube)

Joint Attention is the shared focus of two individuals on an object. It is achieved when one individual alerts another to an object by means of eye-gazing, pointing or other verbal or non-verbal indications. An individual gazes at another individual, points to an object and then returns their gaze to the individual. Multitasking.

Continuous Partial Attention describe a modern adaptive behavior of continuously dividing one's attention.

Divided Attention occurs when mental focus is directed towards multiple ideas, or tasks, at once. 

Undivided Attention is when you concentrate on something or someone fully and do not think about anything else.

Fixation as a visual activity is the maintaining of the visual gaze on a single location.

Prefrontal Cortex Regulates Sensory Filtering through a Basal Ganglia-to-Thalamus Pathway. To make adaptive decisions, organisms must appropriately filter sensory inputs, augmenting relevant signals and noise suppression. The prefrontal cortex partly implements this process by regulating thalamic activity through modality-specific thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) subnetworks. However, because the PFC does not directly project to sensory TRN subnetworks, the circuitry underlying this process had been unknown. Here, using anatomical tracing, functional manipulations, and optical identification of PFC projection neurons, we find that the PFC regulates sensory thalamic activity through a basal ganglia pathway. Engagement of this PFC-BG-thalamus pathway enables selection between vision and audition by primarily suppressing the distracting modality. This pathway also enhances sensory discrimination and is used for goal-directed background noise suppression. Overall, our results identify a new pathway for attentional filtering and reveal its multiple roles in sensory processing on the basis of internal goals. A brain circuit that suppresses distracting sensory information holds important clues about attention and other cognitive processes. We attend to only a fraction of the sensory data available to us. We can pick out a conversation in a loud room, amid the rise and fall of other voices or the hum of an air conditioner. We can spot a set of keys in a sea of clutter, or register a raccoon darting into the path of our onrushing car. Somehow, even with massive amounts of information flooding our senses, we’re able to focus on what’s important and act on it. Researchers are trying a different approach, studying how the brain suppresses information rather than how it augments it. Perhaps more importantly, they’ve found that this process involves more ancient regions much deeper in the brain — regions not often considered when it comes to attention. By doing so, scientists have also inadvertently started to take baby steps toward a better understanding of how body and mind — through automatic sensory experiences, physical movements and higher-level consciousness — are deeply and inextricably intertwined. The brain tunes out distractions. The brain wasn’t brightening the light on stimuli of interest; it was lowering the lights on everything else. A thin layer of inhibitory neurons called the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN), which wraps around the rest of the thalamus like a shell. Prefrontal cortex, which issues high-level commands to other parts of the brain, was crucial. The full circuit, they found, goes from the prefrontal cortex to a much deeper structure called the basal ganglia (often associated with motor control and a host of other functions), then to the TRN and the thalamus, before finally going back up to higher cortical regions. So, for instance, as visual information passes from the eye to the visual thalamus, it can get intercepted almost immediately if it’s not relevant to the given task. The basal ganglia can step in and activate the visual TRN to screen out the extraneous stimuli, in keeping with the prefrontal cortex’s directive.

New study examines promising approach to treating attention and working memory difficulties in children. An adaptive cognitive training program could help treat attention and working memory difficulties in children with sickle cell disease (SCD), a new study shows.

Our Brains Are Pretty Much On Autopilot When We Type (youtube) - When we type, our brain is doing most of the work without our conscious input. So you can blame your brain for al teh typsos. Typing.

Quiet Eye (youtube, PBS)

"If you don't learn to control yourself then someone or something will end up controlling you, and not always in your best interest." 

There are many benefits of having the ability to focus and pay attention. In order to maintain your abilities and keep your mind strong, you have to practice and exercise the control that you have over the mind. The Brain loves to learn.

Dynamics of neural recruitment surrounding the spontaneous arising of thoughts in experienced mindfulness practitioners.

Self-Directed Learning

Sophrosyne is an ideal of excellence of character and soundness of mind, which when combined in one well-balanced individual leads to other qualities, such as temperance, moderation, prudence, purity, and self-control.

You can accomplish anything if you put your mind to it, but of course that's easier said then done. Staying focused takes more then will and desire, it also takes Practice, good skills and good techniques that will help you stay on track. Skills like time management skills, good foresight and good planning techniques, good management techniques, good problem solving techniques, good Awareness, having good emotional control, it's commitment and dedication, it's having good learning techniques, good study skills, it's knowing how to avoid distractions and being good at handling stress and pressure. It's having good health, good stamina, good work ethics and knowing when to take breaks. It's understanding your purpose, your abilities and your weaknesses. It's understanding your priorities and your responsibilities. And don't be overwhelmed or feel inadequate, just start, you can still learn a lot from the experience as long as you are aware of those learning moments and understand them.

"To have a Goal is to have a purpose."

Stanford Marshmallow Experiment was a series of studies on delayed gratification in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In these studies, a child was offered a choice between one small reward provided immediately or two small rewards (i.e., a larger later reward) if they waited for a short period, approximately 15 minutes, during which the tester left the room and then returned. (The reward was sometimes a marshmallow, but often a cookie or a pretzel.) In follow-up studies, the researchers found that children who were able to wait longer for the preferred rewards tended to have better life outcomes, as measured by SAT scores, educational attainment, body mass index (BMI), and other life measures.

Marshmallow Test reproduced by Dr David Walsh (youtube)

The ability to turn down immediate pleasures or instant gratification in favor of gaining the long-term satisfaction and fulfillment from achieving higher and more meaningful Goals.

Spatial Awareness

Visual Attention Lab (Harvard) 

Akrasia is lack of self-control or the state of acting against one's better judgment.

Sometimes focusing on one thing can lead to other ideas or questions. So you might get off track from the original goal. So it's best to quickly write down these new questions or ideas and then return to the original plan. Sometimes you start off doing one thing but then end up doing something else, which is not always a bad thing. But you need to discipline yourself to stay on track if you want to reach your goal in the necessary timeframe. But don't ignore what you learn along the way because it might be important. 

"There will always be things that will catch you off guard."

You have to exercise self-control everyday in order to keep this ability strong, just like you would a muscle. Always take a moment in your day to stop a Habit and show yourself that you are in control. Eventually you will become more aware and more in control. So Training, Persistence and Practicing Willpower is a must. Finding your Zone or Flow.

What Not to Do List

Video Games is a way of exercising your focus. But you should exercise your focus on things that benefit you.

S.L.L.S. - Stop - Look - Listen - Smell

Take a timeout and refocus. Set a recurring alarm on your phone for every two hours. Start and End the Day with Control.

Iceman Wim Hof is able to influence his autonomic nervous system and immune system at will. Wim Hof Method. The method appears to allow him to generate heat that dissipates to lung tissue and warms circulating blood in the pulmonary capillaries. Anterior insula is where the brain's higher thermoregulatory centers are located. Periaqueductal gray matter area is associated with brain mechanisms for the control of sensory pain and is thought to implement this control through the release of opioids and cannabinoids. Generating a stress-induced analgesic response in periaqueductal gray matter.

Body Temperature Regulation - Heat - Breathing Exercises

Thermogenesis is the process of heat production in organisms. It occurs in all warm-blooded animals, and also in a few species of thermogenic plants.

Super Antifreeze in Cells. The ability to survive in ice and snow developed in animals far earlier than we thought. More than 400 million years ago, an insect-like animal called the springtail developed a small protein that prevents its cells from freezing.

Anna Bågenholm is a Swedish radiologist born in 1970 in Vänersborg, who survived after a skiing accident in 1999 left her trapped under a layer of ice for 80 minutes in freezing water. During this time she became a victim of extreme hypothermia and her body temperature decreased to 13.7 °C (56.7 °F), one of the lowest survived body temperatures ever recorded in a human with accidental hypothermia. Bågenholm was able to find an air pocket under the ice, but suffered circulatory arrest after 40 minutes in the water. After rescue, Bågenholm was transported by helicopter to the Tromsø University Hospital, where a team of more than a hundred doctors and nurses worked in shifts for nine hours to save her life. Bågenholm woke up ten days after the accident, paralyzed from the neck down and subsequently spent two months recovering in an intensive care unit. Although she has made an almost full recovery from the incident, late in 2009 she was still suffering from minor symptoms in hands and feet related to nerve injury. Bågenholm's case has been discussed in the leading British medical journal The Lancet, and in medical textbooks.

Goosebumps

Spanish butterflies better at regulating their body temperature than their British cousins. Butterfly populations in Catalonia in northern Spain are better than their UK counterparts at regulating their body temperature by basking in the sunshine, but rising global temperatures due to climate change may put Spanish butterflies at greater risk of extinction.

Reading, listening, watching, meditation, sports and juggling are some of the things that require long periods of focus, so use them to measure and strengthen your focus.

Addictions - Memory - Prioritizing - Routines - Traits - Intelligence - Self Smart

Self Control over behaviors, impulses, habits, urges, cravings, emotions and desires.

Disposition is an artificial habit, a preparation, a state of readiness, or a tendency to act in a specified way that may be learned.

Will to Power is the main driving force in humans – achievement, ambition, and the striving to reach the highest possible position in life. These are all manifestations of the will to power; however, the concept was never systematically defined.

Commitment and Sticking to the plan regardless of the obstacles, discomfort or difficulties that may arise.

Awareness of your motivations and triggers.

Confidence - Temptation - Confusion

Stroop Effect: Name the colors of the following words. Do NOT read the words...rather, say the color of the words.

Speed of Processing Theory is the interference occurs because words are read faster than colors are named.

Selective Attention Theory is the interference occurs because naming colors requires more attention than reading words.

Binding Problem is a term used at the interface between neuroscience, cognitive science and philosophy of mind that has multiple meanings. Firstly, there is the segregation problem: a practical computational problem of how brains segregate elements in complex patterns of sensory input so that they are allocated to discrete "objects". In other words, when looking at a blue square and a yellow circle, what neural mechanisms ensure that the square is perceived as blue and the circle as yellow, and not vice versa? The segregation problem is sometimes called BP1. Secondly, there is the combination problem: the problem of how objects, background and abstract or emotional features are combined into a single experience. The combination problem is sometimes called BP2. However, the difference between these two problems is not always clear. Moreover, the historical literature is often ambiguous as to whether it is addressing the segregation or the combination problem.

Linear Learning

"What can be Measured can be Improved.” - Quantified Self

Knowledge Management - Math

Knowing when to take breaks and when to exercise. - Time Management.

Having hobbies or a variety of activities that stimulates your imagination, gives inspiration and reenergizes your energy level.

Independent Learning - Healthy Nutrition - Sleep

Focus comes from eliminating distractions, distractions from outside influences and from thoughts inside the mind. Good planning, good methods, and always learning.

Being in control is liberating. It frees you from making the same mistakes over and over again. You'll still be spontaneous and creative, and your mind will still wonder, but this time you'll be a little more aware and a lot less out of control. You may think that discipline is too constraining, but it's not, it's actually less constraining because you have more control over your constraints.

You also become better at decision making because you are now more aware.

Father the Sleeper has Awaken (youtube)

Be Here Now, Live in the Now, not thinking of the past, not thinking of the future, calm your mind and just be in the present moment. Let go of your self-serving self-interested desires. Learning to live in the moment several times a day can help with focus, memory, relaxation and meditation.

Sometimes you have to Stand Back and ask yourself, What am I doing?  How did I get here?

Before you learn the skills and knowledge that creates self discipline, self control and self awareness, you first have to know the reasons why you are seeking these disciplines. What do you want to achieve, what are your goals and what is your purpose? It’s just not enough to be aware of the benefits that come from having disciplines, but most importantly, you have to know the specific reasons why you need disciplines and what you plan to do with them. These are some of the questions you need to ask if you are going to stay on track and also be able to recognize the things that will take you off track. If you leave one question answered if may be that one question that will unravel everything that you are trying to achieve. You have to know your weaknesses and you have to know your strengths. This goes way beyond having Routines and Rituals. You still need to be aware of whom you are and what you are trying to achieve. So when changes do occur you will be able to recognize these changes and still maintain your Focus. Of course maintaining focus over long periods of time is not recommended because it can be unhealthy and also threaten mental and physical stability. So one of your disciplines will be learning to have Balance and Symmetry in your life. You need a Time and Task Management System that can be modified when situations change. You also need a system that reminds you that you are still a human that needs more then just disciplines in order to thrive. 

The only mind control you should have is your Conscience...

The capacity to rationally weigh Principles of responsibility.

Conscience - Routine

Prioritizing your thoughts is essential. Instead of having uncontrolled Random thoughts you should have control of your thoughts so that you don't waste time with irrelevant or low priority things that want to control your mind and your time. You can only think of one thing at a time, so Choose Well. You brain can only process so much information at once, so it's important that you know which processes should be running. Like the process for total self awareness, or the process for awareness of your surroundings and the process for listening to a person or persons. Trying to be aware of several things at once is not very effective. Daydreaming while driving is a good example. There's a big difference between Multitasking and Focus.

Related Subjects - Controls - Training - Listening - Comprehension - Awareness - Executive Functions - Meditation - Hypnosis - Silence is Golden - Emotions Effect on Focus - Behavior - Know Thyself - Brain - Memory.