To fail or not to fail...winning is a choice that requires concentration.

Concentration…

To a first grader, that’s a pretty long word. We’re talking thirteen letters! It’s not just any remark or declaration, this baby’s been part of your channel since the moment you processed the gibberish falling from those two pinkish red things firmly planted beneath your parent’s nose.

Dictionary.com describes concentration as paying close attention to one object; close mental application.

I get nothing from that.

Some might call it Corporate America talk, “You need to use more concentration!”

“I am! It’s not my fault these angry birds won’t knock down the structures quicker!”

The book Powers Within puts a different spin on concentration calling it the Master-Key; if you’re willing to gather the rays of attention and consciousness on one point and maintain this concentration with persistent will, nothing can resist it.
Oh my God that flew over my head!
To concentrate properly and effectively requires discipline. Your daily goal shouldn’t be to train yourself to focus on one thing but rather concentrating on the development of value. Nothing has the energy to break the strength of well trained concentration.

Some call it being in the zone or sporting a game face; personally I see concentration as being reconnected to the womb; the birth place of all things leaping from this system I’ve been forced to carry for forty eight years has to start somewhere and be it spiritual or nothing more than an artists point of view…the journey begins in the womb.

You cannot reach a level of business or private success without obtaining the intense and obstinate power of concentration. You can throw the best football, roll twelve strikes in a row, generate more new business for your company or teach chorus to a hundred and fifty caffeinated high school students but you can’t reach a level of being recognized for your performance and distance without learning how to cultivate the power of concentration.

Not all methods of concentration are the same…artists and scientists tend to push their thought process outward knowing the end result of their creation has the ability to become part of someone’s life.

People with strong imaginations tend to push their concentration levels upward allowing the universe or Great Creator to be part of the development of thoughts and or actions becoming reality.

Who I am as a radio disc jockey versus an in studio producer of commercials are separate rivers of performance. Jokingly I have no problem telling you Arroe can’t stand Arroe. Now toss in the published author and blogger, combined with the sloppy painter of people’s faces on portraits, the musician and martial artist; this might explain why 99.9% of what I attempt to write is never understood because too much concentration from too many personalities are trying to participate with a single expression.

I’m not the only one! Being employed today requires unheard of amounts of multi-tasking, slamming the common worker into shades of gray, blue, bright purple and whatever other color the company or sixteen part time jobs require. Teenagers are having heart attacks. Women having strokes has risen 51% in ten years. Verbal and physical battles between coworkers has Human Resource Departments scrambling for newer ways to save their best employees from being mowed over by a bad day gone worse.

If artists and scientists reach outward and individuals with strong imaginations lean back and shoot their concentration upward…what gives in the person that turns their energy downward?

While meditating I noticed early in martial arts studies how looking down seemed shove my concentration inward, to heal, to foresee, to visualize, to gather strength that had been lost, to tune out, to comfort self, to blend light with inner darkness allowing there to be warmth in cold corners of a world nobody sees but the feelings are hard hitting and extremely hurtful.

According to the Powers Within, it should be your daily practice to work the hinges of your concentration—some days you’re pushing outward, then up to the ceiling, down and around…learning to move your concentration makes you stronger as a person.

Writing this blog everyday requires focus; concentrating on the purpose of these pages pushes thought through the tips of my fingers and by way of modern day magic it somehow lands on computer faces in Germany, Russia, South Korea, Canada and Butte, Montana. Writing everyday has nothing to do with radio and everything to do with developing what I’ve always dreamed; being a Broadcaster.

What’s this have to do with you? Understanding the difference between focus and concentration sews a net to fall into on days when the world of business crashes. By way of exercising concentration you’re enabling the single stick in the mud that looks and walks like you to have enough confidence to sprout limbs making you the biggest most colorful tree in the forest.

What’s keeping you from obtaining financial success, recognition for your dedication given to a career, family peace and a child that listens rather than fights back? Might the missing key be the Master of all links? Concentration… Practice makes winners…

I’ll always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

You won't read this until it's almost too late...

Ok…you elected to show up for work. Getting completely caught up is a different story. You’re there…enough said…right? During an average day, how often do you putt up the hallway to fetch a pail of water? Wait that’s me gulping that much clear stuff.



Walking…how much walking do you do around the office, at home after work or during the weekend when life has delivered you a 48 hour period of nothingness but to physically focus on it would mean you’ve truly done nothing and you start to feel guilty?



This is my new game: I can name those twenty questions in two notes.



Spent some time last evening walking in out and around downtown—while most enjoy gazing at unforgettably tall skyscraping mountains or evenly paced waves crashing against Carolina shores connected to harbors, lakes and other big, big bodies of water; I locate peace in the fine art of people watching.



I’m completely fascinated with the way people walk; there are no two strides the same. You have every right to impersonate, emulate and or carry your leg like your parents when they were you’re age but in the end, just like the prints on your hand…unique and one of a kind are the name of the walking game.



What I find interesting is the way we walk. Look beyond the rush, rush of your own world and you too will quickly notice that outside of a few middle aged mall walkers, placing the right foot in front of the left may look, smell and appear to be walking but in reality…you are carrying.



When you carry…you are not free. Free means letting go and or no longer holding onto.



Your mind is completely clogged with a past you can’t change, change you’d love to shove into a parking meter but to stop because it would require change, nobody likes change so you keep carrying.



More time is spent regretting the past then pursuing fifteen minutes of happiness. Seriously! Look around you! Grumble mumble, kick stumble, we buy brand new because its like changing shoes, the goal is to create enough wind to sack the black cloud above your head; the one that’s easily convinced you of having the world’s worst day and luck.



Practice the power of getting back to yourself.



Oh oh…that sounds pretty darn selfish in a world led by parental figures and Grandparents that force us to share or else. Interestingly enough, when the decision is made to come back to yourself, the rocks and moss that once kept water from spilling over the banks on the mountains you keep in your heart tend to become fresh again, sending shivers of oh wow and neat oh skeet oh through your system of acceptance.



Julia Roberts is set to return to the screen in a film based on a single woman searching for the right man and what she discovers while uncovering is herself. Any act of mindfulness is far better than licking your lips and decorating your tongue with two freshly opened BC Powders.



Paul McCartney unknowingly demonstrated mindfulness last night at his show. The Mozart of our time spoke softly of how difficult it is to play a musical instrument and remember the lyrics of songs while fans are waving banners in the stands. He knows how much energy went into each piece of your art only to realize his creations face defeat if mindfulness isn’t practiced…so he’s trained himself to look forward.



Concentration is the key to the missing link in the monkey chain.



Don’t just drink Southern sweet tea…enjoy it; nourishing yourself with something you find pleasure in gifts your present moment with a positive and not the hell bent past that honestly means nothing to anybody but the self you keep staring at in the mirror.



Concentration is used as a knock on the door…it introduces your dreams to breakthrough. Depression, despair and fear break up their 24/7 poker game and head for the open window.



When was the last time you truly concentrated? On something other than what you did in high school and the chapters you kind of agreed to put together while in your twenties. Concentration teaches us to be aware of the present while taking fear out of the future.



McCartney performed a song that he had written after John Lennon had passed. The songwriter/performer explained that he always wanted to say something to his one time partner in art, “I love you…”



Tomorrow is always going to be too late. As much as we complain about the voices in our head, truth is…we are not separated selves. Concentration is the tool you find when not trying to buy. It’s the hand that seems to reach out and hold yours when in doubt. Concentration is a Hollywood movie played like a world premiere and your walk down the red carpet is savored like chocolate meeting taste buds.



Concentration leads to insight…maybe its time we stop carrying our day and locate better and easier ways to walk.



arroecollins@clearchannel.com