August 4, 2025 • 10 mins
Have you ever tried to start your day with the best intentions only to have your attention hijacked by email pings, barking dogs, or that mysterious ice maker noise in the kitchen?
Yeah. Same.
In today’s lesson, I’m teaching one of the most underrated (yet powerful) skills for career and life success: how to train your focus like a muscle.
And I’m not talking about downloading some shiny productivity app.
I’m talking about something deeper and more effective…
🧠 Mental warm-ups you can do before the chaos of the day begins.
🔥 A simple 10-minute daily ritual to build real focus and willpower.
🎯 Why distraction isn’t your fault, but staying distracted is your choice.
💡 How to apply focus training to every task (even cleaning your coffee pot).
If you want to stop reacting to your day and start directing it, this one’s for you…
(You’ll thank me before your second cup of coffee.)
If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:
1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.
2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.
3. Grab any of my three books related to interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.
4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.
5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!
--Andy
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
In order to build any kind of skill it's re I hope you would agree the it's it's much easier
especially if it's a new skill to do it in ideal conditions do we get that right have any of you
learned how to golf you don't learn how to golf by you know by getting in the worst terrain and
(00:22):
and trying to hit a ball you you you try to learn it in ideal conditions where the ball is sitting
right up and teed up for you so to speak right if you are going to give a presentation uh you don't
practice it in front of hundreds of people right it's harder conditions right there's more pressure
so to speak so so one of the things that that I do every single day is when I get up in the morning
(00:46):
it's it's literally one of the first few things that I do is I actually practice focusing for 10
minutes so I I literally concentrate on moving energy through my body the whole body while I
sit still and don't think about anything not my breathing not anything but moving the energy
that's what I do now you can focus on anything you want and if you're able to focus on something for
(01:10):
longer than let's say 10 seconds if this is your first time ever trying it you're doing pretty good
if you could get up to a minute that's miraculous and to get to 10 minutes without letting your mind
stray is something that took me years to do so so what I what I taught you in the focus lesson is
(01:32):
that when we go into our day and we're so engaged with all the distractions if you have not warmed
up if you have not done some practicing before you get in the game so to speak it's very difficult to
be effective at it while you're in the middle of the game right so if you if you go to your office
what's happening you got all kind of stimulations you have all kind of stimulations if you wait if
(01:55):
I just went right here to my to my Swiss ball and and and started working there's still distractions
there's noises outside there's people dropping packages at my door my dogs are barking they're
fighting with each other right the ice machine that I have in the kitchen makes noise every now
and again when it drops ice that kind of stuff so there's all kinds of distractions but if I
(02:17):
don't practice focusing then I be then I become more easily distracted and it and like anything
it's a skill that needs to be built and like any skill that you build it will atrophy over time if
you don't practice it so what I do is I sit in that chair this one right here literally I say
it's jet blackout cuz it's super early when I get up and it's the ideal conditions cuz I don't have
(02:39):
my wife with me I don't have my dogs with me I don't have any noise other than you know if
there's maybe a bird chirping or whatever and so I practice moving energy through my body so what
my recommendation for you is before you go into your day it's a good idea to have some I don't
care what you do just quiet time by yourself and practice Focus FOC using I don't care what you
(03:01):
focus on I don't care if you want to focus on your breathing that's a really good one
because well we all need to breathe uh you could focus on your loved one's face or something like
that doesn't really matter but the point is to actually focus and actually concentrate and not
let your mind wander and then if your mind wanders you don't fight don't fight the thought that goes
(03:22):
for anything that's a whole let I don't want to go off the rails here but that's a whole another
lesson about thoughts and the thoughts that shoot through your head the fact that you're fighting to
keep a thought out of your head is actually energy in the wrong direction just let the thought go but
same kind of thing when you're practicing your focus is let the thought zip it out let it go let
it pass it'll pass quickly and then bring yourself back to what you're focusing on and what this does
(03:46):
is it helps you actually train your mind uh not to not to get distracted right the more and and
that's an ideal situation then what I do is as I go in throughout the day one of the things that I
do is there are a number of macro level things that I do in order to create an environment that
(04:06):
and figurative operating environment that I go through throughout my day so as to not accumulate
any additional stress become any more tired than I naturally would be or or be thinking about or
distracted by anything else that's unnecessarily pulling my energy away from what it is I want
to focus on and one of the other things I talked about in the focus session is is the development
(04:30):
of willpower and there is for those of you that are in the leadership session there is
an entire lesson on Willpower but the very very quick couple of minute lesson on Willpower is
willpower is is many people think of it in in an abstinence sort of way I need to avoid in my case
(04:51):
eating the potato chips right or I need to avoid doing something and so willpower is my ability to
withhold myself from doing something but when really in reality willpower is about exerting
control to complete something if you truly look it up and truly understand what what what the word
and and what all the connotations are all about and so willpower is a way of building Focus be by
(05:17):
by basically going through a series of steps that enables you to build your ability to concentrate
and to focus and so one of the things that I that I would talk about in my in my my willpower so I
I think these two are really good for focusing in in in doing willpower throughout the day any
activity that I I'm about to undertake I always think about what is it that I'm about to do and
(05:43):
then what is it that I want to happen as a result of that I want to I always use the coffee pot
because I do that every day right I'm going to clean the coffee pot the coffee pot is going to
be cleaned put back it's going to be wiped down and refilled for the next day so that me or the
m just needs to hit the button when when when we get when we get down here and so you think about
(06:04):
doing the act so I want to start the ACT I want to finish the ACT I want to complete the act a
little bit better than I thought I would quality up higher and do a little more so if you think
about that every time you do something if you're going to write the paper start it finish it do
(06:26):
it a little better than you thought you would and do a little more than you thought you would
kind of thing and so every single thing that I do throughout the day I think about if I'm going
to start something meaning I'm actually going to do something I think about those three things and
those three things in anything you do if you do them on an ongoing basis will help you build your
(06:46):
willpower for life meaning for everything that you do so if I'm going to have a conversation with you
I assure you I want you to feel like you are the only person in the world right now right that kind
of thing and I could you could hold my attention and my mind won't wander and my phone's not going
to be going off because I'm going to complete that act which is dedicating my attention to you and
(07:07):
and and I you know everything that I do throughout the day whether it's taking the dogs out or
folding the laundry or cleaning the coffee pot or even cooking the dinner things like that I I try
to focus on and build my willpower throughout the day so the the thrust of this message here is you
will never be able to lead a focused lifestyle if you practice for for 10 minutes focusing in the
(07:30):
morning and then you slip into all your bad habits throughout the day of being distracted by you know
this thing or the computer alerts or looking at the phone every time it rings or whatever it
might be you're you're never going to have that focused diet it's the same thing like an actual
food diet right if you have a healthy breakfast but you eat burgers and chips and pizza all day
(07:54):
every day you're just not you're not going to maintain the weight you want so it this is
this is not a tough concept to grasp it is an excruciating concept to implement on an ongoing
basis at the level of frequency that's required in order to maintain a focused life in today's
world right we have you know I I think about like the you know think about like when you watch TV if
(08:20):
you've ever put like the news on or a morning talk show or C you know um MSNBC CN C CNN ABC it makes
no difference and you've got people talking you got ticklers running across the bottom that are
showing you stock prices weather weather in the world weather in your town weather in your at your
(08:44):
house whether like and all the stuff is going back like that that in and of itself is introducing
distraction to you you cannot possibly concentrate on whatever the moderators people interviewers or
people being interviewed are saying so everything is built like that for you if I open up the
(09:04):
weather app on my phone there's there's ads that are flying across it because I don't want to pay
for the premium version so everything in your life is is is built to distract you so you have to do
everything necessary in order to in order to focus uh what's this even this chat I get distracted
because the people on the same floor keep slamming their doors so simple but off and over I
(09:30):
okay I you don't you probably don't know this but my wife uh she had two dogs when we when we uh met
uh Harley which you've maybe seen on the camera a time or two who's now 17 years and some change
and ginger who's passed and I lived in a condo I'm actually going to tell you the story in a little
(09:53):
while but I lived in a condo and my wife and the dogs moved in and I lived in a condo and it was
only 12 units but we had an elevator and I lived in the middle in the middle unit
on the second floor there a mezzanine where you walk in there's a first floor second third and
there's an elevator and I work out of my home anytime the elevator it didn't have to land on
(10:13):
my floor just if the elevator was moving the dogs would bark so you imagine the the amount
of distraction that that I was incur incurring to the point where we had to get somebody to
come in the house so we can train the dogs and we we kept going in the elevator and making it
beep and so we had to to train the dogs not to bark and all these kind of things just
so I can make it through my day without being distracted I mean silly story but this is the
(10:36):
kind of stuff that's around us all the time right so so anyway so this is this is a big
deal so check out the focus session if you haven't already there's a lot in there but these are some
quick tips that you can immediately Implement like the second the second I turn this guy off
In order to build any kind of skill it's re I hope you would agree the it's it's much easier
especially if it's a new skill to do it in ideal conditions do we get that right have any of you
learned how to golf you don't learn how to golf by you know by getting in the worst terrain and
(00:22):
and trying to hit a ball you you you try to learn it in ideal conditions where the ball is sitting
right up and teed up for you so to speak right if you are going to give a presentation uh you don't
practice it in front of hundreds of people right it's harder conditions right there's more pressure
so to speak so so one of the things that that I do every single day is when I get up in the morning
(00:46):
it's it's literally one of the first few things that I do is I actually practice focusing for 10
minutes so I I literally concentrate on moving energy through my body the whole body while I
sit still and don't think about anything not my breathing not anything but moving the energy
that's what I do now you can focus on anything you want and if you're able to focus on something for
(01:10):
longer than let's say 10 seconds if this is your first time ever trying it you're doing pretty good
if you could get up to a minute that's miraculous and to get to 10 minutes without letting your mind
stray is something that took me years to do so so what I what I taught you in the focus lesson is
(01:32):
that when we go into our day and we're so engaged with all the distractions if you have not warmed
up if you have not done some practicing before you get in the game so to speak it's very difficult to
be effective at it while you're in the middle of the game right so if you if you go to your office
what's happening you got all kind of stimulations you have all kind of stimulations if you wait if
(01:55):
I just went right here to my to my Swiss ball and and and started working there's still distractions
there's noises outside there's people dropping packages at my door my dogs are barking they're
fighting with each other right the ice machine that I have in the kitchen makes noise every now
and again when it drops ice that kind of stuff so there's all kinds of distractions but if I
(02:17):
don't practice focusing then I be then I become more easily distracted and it and like anything
it's a skill that needs to be built and like any skill that you build it will atrophy over time if
you don't practice it so what I do is I sit in that chair this one right here literally I say
it's jet blackout cuz it's super early when I get up and it's the ideal conditions cuz I don't have
(02:39):
my wife with me I don't have my dogs with me I don't have any noise other than you know if
there's maybe a bird chirping or whatever and so I practice moving energy through my body so what
my recommendation for you is before you go into your day it's a good idea to have some I don't
care what you do just quiet time by yourself and practice Focus FOC using I don't care what you
(03:01):
focus on I don't care if you want to focus on your breathing that's a really good one
because well we all need to breathe uh you could focus on your loved one's face or something like
that doesn't really matter but the point is to actually focus and actually concentrate and not
let your mind wander and then if your mind wanders you don't fight don't fight the thought that goes
(03:22):
for anything that's a whole let I don't want to go off the rails here but that's a whole another
lesson about thoughts and the thoughts that shoot through your head the fact that you're fighting to
keep a thought out of your head is actually energy in the wrong direction just let the thought go but
same kind of thing when you're practicing your focus is let the thought zip it out let it go let
it pass it'll pass quickly and then bring yourself back to what you're focusing on and what this does
(03:46):
is it helps you actually train your mind uh not to not to get distracted right the more and and
that's an ideal situation then what I do is as I go in throughout the day one of the things that I
do is there are a number of macro level things that I do in order to create an environment that
(04:06):
and figurative operating environment that I go through throughout my day so as to not accumulate
any additional stress become any more tired than I naturally would be or or be thinking about or
distracted by anything else that's unnecessarily pulling my energy away from what it is I want
to focus on and one of the other things I talked about in the focus session is is the development
(04:30):
of willpower and there is for those of you that are in the leadership session there is
an entire lesson on Willpower but the very very quick couple of minute lesson on Willpower is
willpower is is many people think of it in in an abstinence sort of way I need to avoid in my case
(04:51):
eating the potato chips right or I need to avoid doing something and so willpower is my ability to
withhold myself from doing something but when really in reality willpower is about exerting
control to complete something if you truly look it up and truly understand what what what the word
and and what all the connotations are all about and so willpower is a way of building Focus be by
(05:17):
by basically going through a series of steps that enables you to build your ability to concentrate
and to focus and so one of the things that I that I would talk about in my in my my willpower so I
I think these two are really good for focusing in in in doing willpower throughout the day any
activity that I I'm about to undertake I always think about what is it that I'm about to do and
(05:43):
then what is it that I want to happen as a result of that I want to I always use the coffee pot
because I do that every day right I'm going to clean the coffee pot the coffee pot is going to
be cleaned put back it's going to be wiped down and refilled for the next day so that me or the
m just needs to hit the button when when when we get when we get down here and so you think about
(06:04):
doing the act so I want to start the ACT I want to finish the ACT I want to complete the act a
little bit better than I thought I would quality up higher and do a little more so if you think
about that every time you do something if you're going to write the paper start it finish it do
(06:26):
it a little better than you thought you would and do a little more than you thought you would
kind of thing and so every single thing that I do throughout the day I think about if I'm going
to start something meaning I'm actually going to do something I think about those three things and
those three things in anything you do if you do them on an ongoing basis will help you build your
(06:46):
willpower for life meaning for everything that you do so if I'm going to have a conversation with you
I assure you I want you to feel like you are the only person in the world right now right that kind
of thing and I could you could hold my attention and my mind won't wander and my phone's not going
to be going off because I'm going to complete that act which is dedicating my attention to you and
(07:07):
and and I you know everything that I do throughout the day whether it's taking the dogs out or
folding the laundry or cleaning the coffee pot or even cooking the dinner things like that I I try
to focus on and build my willpower throughout the day so the the thrust of this message here is you
will never be able to lead a focused lifestyle if you practice for for 10 minutes focusing in the
(07:30):
morning and then you slip into all your bad habits throughout the day of being distracted by you know
this thing or the computer alerts or looking at the phone every time it rings or whatever it
might be you're you're never going to have that focused diet it's the same thing like an actual
food diet right if you have a healthy breakfast but you eat burgers and chips and pizza all day
(07:54):
every day you're just not you're not going to maintain the weight you want so it this is
this is not a tough concept to grasp it is an excruciating concept to implement on an ongoing
basis at the level of frequency that's required in order to maintain a focused life in today's
world right we have you know I I think about like the you know think about like when you watch TV if
(08:20):
you've ever put like the news on or a morning talk show or C you know um MSNBC CN C CNN ABC it makes
no difference and you've got people talking you got ticklers running across the bottom that are
showing you stock prices weather weather in the world weather in your town weather in your at your
(08:44):
house whether like and all the stuff is going back like that that in and of itself is introducing
distraction to you you cannot possibly concentrate on whatever the moderators people interviewers or
people being interviewed are saying so everything is built like that for you if I open up the
(09:04):
weather app on my phone there's there's ads that are flying across it because I don't want to pay
for the premium version so everything in your life is is is built to distract you so you have to do
everything necessary in order to in order to focus uh what's this even this chat I get distracted
because the people on the same floor keep slamming their doors so simple but off and over I
(09:30):
okay I you don't you probably don't know this but my wife uh she had two dogs when we when we uh met
uh Harley which you've maybe seen on the camera a time or two who's now 17 years and some change
and ginger who's passed and I lived in a condo I'm actually going to tell you the story in a little
(09:53):
while but I lived in a condo and my wife and the dogs moved in and I lived in a condo and it was
only 12 units but we had an elevator and I lived in the middle in the middle unit
on the second floor there a mezzanine where you walk in there's a first floor second third and
there's an elevator and I work out of my home anytime the elevator it didn't have to land on
(10:13):
my floor just if the elevator was moving the dogs would bark so you imagine the the amount
of distraction that that I was incur incurring to the point where we had to get somebody to
come in the house so we can train the dogs and we we kept going in the elevator and making it
beep and so we had to to train the dogs not to bark and all these kind of things just
so I can make it through my day without being distracted I mean silly story but this is the
(10:36):
kind of stuff that's around us all the time right so so anyway so this is this is a big
deal so check out the focus session if you haven't already there's a lot in there but these are some
quick tips that you can immediately Implement like the second the second I turn this guy off
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