Goal-orientation, focus, and flow – what’s the difference?

Much is made of the ability to ‘focus’ as pre-requisite for success. But what do we mean by focus? What should we focus on? And how much?

It is natural for leaders to ask us to focus on our goals. Goal-orientation gives a sense of urgency, direction, and shared purpose.

But goal-orientation can work against us. Often, I have found myself mistaking goal-orientation for focus, and this has been counter-productive. The harder I want to achieve something, the less it seems I am able to do so. Anxiety – the feeling of having to achieve – distracts from acquiring and using the skills needed to make achievement possible.

So what is it that distinguishes focus and goal-orientation?

Our focus is where we put our attention at any moment in time. Focusing on goals is useful from time to time, and we should retain a sense of direction with respect to our goals.

However, most of the time, it is more useful to focus on the task in hand if we are to perform as well as we are able. We recognise what it feels like to be ‘in the flow’ of a task or project, and many people get their greatest fulfilment in such moments. Think about the last time you really enjoyed what you were doing for its own sake, without any need to perform. Perhaps you were kicking a football around and enjoyed the sense of your own skill in movement. Perhaps you were planing a plank of hardwood and found pleasure in the smooth action of the plane: the feeling of your feet on the ground, the movement of your body and hands guiding the plane, and the precise and even cut of the plane’s blade. You were so engaged in your task that you didn’t notice the passage of time. And you weren’t thinking about your goals. Such moments occur when we are fully engaged in our task and focusing on the here and now.

While we recognise that state of being in the flow, we rarely turn our awareness to what creates it, or how to reproduce it.

In the Feldenkrais Method we practice removing goal-orientation entirely. Removing goals helps create an optimal learning environment. With no goal to achieve, we place ourselves in world where there is no judgement of self or of others, no success or failure, and where there is space to explore how we do what we are doing. We become curious about the action itself, rather than its consequence. We are placing ourselves ‘in the flow’. This close attention opens us to discover better ways of doing, and we find ourselves becoming more skilled. Thus, paradoxically, our ability to reach our goals has been enhanced by entirely removing our goal-orientation, at least for a period of time.

What do you focus on at different times? What do you do to find flow in your work? Please tell us in a comment.