LIVING WITHOUT DISTRACTION

Yesterday I was having lunch with a former pastor from our church, and we were having one of those great talks. He is a focused man. He has to be. He is living in one of the most difficult regions on earth (North Africa), learning to master French, all with the aim of reaching a very unreached people for Christ (living next to Libya, where by some accounts there are only 6 believers in the country!). But I couldn’t help but become distracted by a cell phone call at the table next to us, that began with one of those annoying, high volume rings (why is it people must turn their phones up, playing the most maddening music, as if to announce to the world, “I am receiving an incoming call”?). Such distractions are the curse of our age.

 

Which brings me to a great, great article I was reading this week out of the NY Times by David Brooks. He is such a good writer. Brooks was reflecting on what makes for great pitching—after all, it was opening day. And he shared some amazing insights by a sports psychologist by the name of Dorfman, who has studied great pitching. And it all goes back to this issue of distraction.

 

Dorfman makes the point that great athletes have this in common—focus, self-discipline, structure. They are not distracted. In his research, Dorfman has found that it takes 10,000 hours of undistracted practice to master any craft—three hours of practice every day for 10 years. It reminds me of a time I was hitting with a tennis pro in Chennai, India, and he was telling me about Pete Sampras’ routine.  Sampras used to come and compete in Chennai, and his regimen was to hit for four hours against two teams of two guys, who would rotate in and out every 15 minutes. After lunch, Sampras would work out with weights for another two hours, then back on the court to serve for another two. (And I thought my routine of playing 3-4 times a week was impressive).

 

Back to pitching, Dorfman says a pitcher who has mastered his craft must bring a relentlessly assertive mind-set to the mound. He must plan on attacking the strike zone early in the count. He will not throw around hitters. He invites contact. This is because a great pitcher thinks about three things, and only three things: pitch selection, pitch location, and the catcher’s glove. If he is thinking about anything else, he should step off the rubber. Everything else is extraneous. In fact, in a pitcher’s mind, the batter barely exists. Listen to how Dorfman describes the batter—“he is a vague, generic abstraction, that hovers out there in the land beyond the pitcher’s control. A pitcher shouldn’t judge himself by how the batter hits his pitches, but instead by whether he threw the pitch he wanted to throw.”

 

He once had a conversation with Greg Maddux after a game and asked how it went. Maddux’s reply, like his pitching, was concise and focused: “Fifty out of seventy-three”

He had thrown 73 pitches and executed 50. Nothing else was relevant.

 

If you’re like me, you’re starting to say to yourself—there’s a lot of life application here. In my world, as a preacher, I have to constantly tell myself when I am on “the mound”  that I should not judge myself by how the congregants respond to what I am saying, but instead by whether I have said what God has called me to say. Nothing else really matters. But easily, I (we?) get distracted by “the batters” in life, when our focus should stay in the strike zone. For us who are about something far greater than pitching stats—advancing God’s kingdom—should we not have even greater focus in what God has called us to? I wonder if the apostle Paul was in effect saying the same thing when he said to the Philippians, “I have not reached the goal, nor am I already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus…one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead…I pursue the prize” (Phil 3:12-14).

 

 

Comments

[brad]

J
Focus. This is a faith issue, a confidence issue and obedience too. In the classroom - not completely unlike the pulpit - we use the research-based term; 'active-engagement.' Delivering the Gospel is not acidental. Rather, my Pastor would say - 'intentioal.' Active engagement in teaching the Gospel requires a healthy dose (balance), of cognitive theory. When the pitcher puts focus on the Big 3, part of the delivery is in relation to the batter history and second guessing the reaction.

Following Jesus is a thinking-mans' game.
thx
bg

[JD]

I don't agree brad. It is not a faith issue. Faith can be strong but distraction is part of life. Trust me on this. Your commenting about faith? John plays tennis on a consistent basis and can block out everything if need be. I've seen people do the wave and he didn't notice. Focusing on something hard enough can block everything out. Lunch is a fun activity (most of the time) and doesn't require much focus. Not to mention, if your listening intently, a phone call will do the job. In Tennis you are not listening to anyone, rather focusing on the ball and your opponents problems with it. Faith can be part of it, but in this aspect, iy is not.

[tony jeffery]

When the focused former pastor asked
'how are you?' The reply was in Arabic, and incomprehensible. Because
his focus was learning French, the language of the former colonial masters,
not Arabic.
To 'focus' a skateboard means you've broken it.