Lost in thought. I wasn’t thinking. What did you say again? I didn’t notice. Huh?
What do these expressions all have in common? Answer: The conscious mind has tuned out. Focus has shifted from the present to the past or future. You can verify that the next time you do it.
It is really, really easy to get lost in thought and start playing the internal discussions. Some people get stuck in these discussions just as someone gets stuck in quicksand. And in the extreme the outcome can be the same for both the internal discussions and the quicksand.
We Coaches strive to maintain focus in what we call uptime. I just had the opportunity to wish a friend well today and remind him to stay focused on the prize. And the best way to do that is to focus on the present.
