Focus. And keep your eyes on the prize.

What does it mean to focus?

This famous photo of Kirk Gibson and Pat Borders was featured in the July 17, 1995, edition of Sports Illustrated. Chuck Solomon took the photo. It is used here without permission. You can read more about it here. In Gibson's autobiography, Bottom of the Ninth, he talks at length about "keeping your eyes on the prize."

I often talk to people about improving their focus. 

I have spoken with students.

Athletes.

Teachers.

Administrators.

Everyone has an opportunity to “improve” his/her level of focus.

Focusing means, as Kirk Gibson once said, “Keeping your eyes on the prize.”

It’s so easy, especially today, to lose focus.

Right now, I’m in a “future of insurance” meeting and I’m writing about “focus.” I have my computer. But I’ve also been known to slip into Twittercoma at boring meetings. Twitter keeps us updated on life, but causes us to lose focus. Cell phones themselves cause us to do the same.

At dinner, spouses, kids — just about everyone — can slip away in their phone instead of staying within the conversation. I try to keep my phone in my pocket but it’s so easy to wonder what’s going on in a sporting event or a news item I’ve been following.

Oh wait, I just received a text. I’ll be back. Soon? It’s hard to say because a text conversation may begin … I just hope that my next texting device comes with “talk service.” That’s the possible new wave that I’ve heard about — TS, or Talk Service.

Back to students. Students so often can drift off and lose touch with the current situation. It’s called engagement. It’s tough to keep students engaged.

Teachers, maybe they’re incorporating too much tech, can also lose touch.

Administrators can sometimes get so caught up in communication through texting and emailing that they forget to call, or walk down the hall to talk directly.

Keep your eyes on the prize!