Pressure

"If I want into the locker room and said, 'Okay, here is what we need to do. We need to win six games and become National Champions," that would put an undue amount of pressure on the team. Instead, I tell them to focus on one game at a time and to segment the NCAAs in three two-game tournaments... Each of those segments becomes a four team tournament that we have to win in order to advance, and that is much less intimidating." - Mike Krzyzewski

Multi-tasking adds spice to life, but it can be a short leap to being overwhelmed. The difference is focus. This afternoon I made up my mind to catch up on some blogging from several books accumulating on the shelf. Along the way it occasionally occurs to me to shake up the routine and pay a bill, organize some scattered paperwork or grab a snack. But the focus is on the task at hand. More commonly the potential distractions pile on at work... this request for an answer, the person who pops in for a quick question. It takes a real discipline to realize that quality comes from concentration, and not from putting out fires that are less than smoldering. I tend to think that allowing myself to be distracted by littler things is a self-destructive tendency, a means of settling for less than the best life has to offer. We are meant for more than that!