Narrowed focus of attention: using your mind to move your body

Author and psychologist Emily Balcetis teaches us how to achieve our fitness goals. After speaking to various professional athletes, she shares their technique of “narrow focus of attention” to use your mind to move your body.

Transcript

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That change in psychological mindset is the direct connection to improved performance.

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[MUSIC PLAYING] So I had the opportunity to talk with some

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of the world's fastest runners, gold medalists out of Trinidad, the fastest sprinters in the world.

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And I went in asking them, what are you looking at? Is there some way that you have a superpower of perception that I might be able to learn from?

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And what I learned in those conversations is that these individuals run their fastest when they assume a narrowed focus of attention,

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when they keep their eyes on the prize-- in this case, the finish line. That's a strategy. That narrow focus of attention is a strategy that all of us

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can learn, and can adopt, and integrate into our exercise practices. We can all imagine a spotlight is shining just on a target

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up ahead. And we're not paying any attention to what's in our peripheral vision. What we found in our research is that when we directed people's focus of attention in that manner,

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they were able to engage in a challenging exercise 23% faster. They moved faster, even though the distance was the same.

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That's a strategy that people can use when we're not there with our stopwatch, keeping track of what they do. When we gained access to what's going on into their health

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and fitness apps, what we saw is that people who have been trained to use that narrowed focus of attention,

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they went on more walks. They took more steps. They walked faster in the same amount of time. We increased the frequency and the efficiency

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of their exercise. Now, the strategy of narrowed focus of attention isn't magic. Instead, what it's doing is taking advantage

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of that power of perception to gain control over our own psychological mindset. People who use that narrow focus of attention

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saw their targets, those finish lines, as closer than they would otherwise. And when it seemed closer, it now seemed more feasible.

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They felt like they had the resources that they needed to meet that goal. It didn't seem so difficult for them. They felt more empowered.

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And they had a greater sense of self-efficacy to actually get there. That's the reason why they could walk faster, walk farther, feel

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like they defied their own expectations for themselves, and try again. [MUSIC PLAYING]