Concentration

"The essential achievement of free will is to attend
to a difficult object and hold it fast before the mind"

William James, 19th-century psychologist

What skill could be more essential to mental fitness than the ability to concentrate? Concentration, the ability to tune in some things and tune out others, underlies every other skill. It enables you to reason, to think clearly, to drive a car through a busy intersection, to plan your finances, to learn a new dance step, and to solve a differential question. It lets you hear the distant call of a willow warbler above the sounds of rustling leaves and to distinguish the fine flavors in a Bordeaux wine.

The truth of the matter is that your attention constantly shifts. It's dynamic, ever on the move, focusing on one thing one moment and on another the next. It is the nature of attention to wander, recall, and anticipate. This mental movement gives a sense of continuity, context, and perspective to your world.

There are definite limits to our attention. We can concentrate only so long on something before our mind skips on to something else. Another limitation is that we can juggle only so many items at one time. To demonstrate this, try the following exercise. Read each of the following series of numbers to yourself. After each series, close your eyes, and repeat the numbers. How long a series can you hold in your mind?

3 5 4 8 4
5 7 9 1 3 2
2 5 4 7 7 0 4
8 5 7 1 3 2 7 0
2 4 6 5 8 4 2 4 5
1 2 6 1 9 4 1 7 2 1 1 9 6 9

If you're like most people, you may find that juggling five numbers in your head is manageable. Seven numbers becomes fairly difficult, and fourteen numbers seems to be next to impossible.