It's a very flexible, agile animal which can be found almost everywhere throughout the northern temperate, subarctic and arctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America.
The guy was getting ready for a hunt. He was giving witty looks at something and reaching for it carefully, quietly. I thought it was a mouse and screen hadn't shown the animal yet.
Suddenly camera was turned towards his target.
" Oh! My gosh! "
Target was at least 3 - 4 times larger than the stoat. It was a huge rabbit.
And the game was begun as our guy jumped. Rabbit started to run at its top speed. It was running rounds across the grassy land where it was having its supper. It was taking sharp bends to miss the stoat but it wasn't that easy.
Then only I noticed that there were dozens of other rabbits, with watchful eyes and ready to run at any moment. And most interesting thing was during his chase, stoat happened to pass several rabbits those were close to him but seemed like he didn't care. His eyes were glued to the rabbit he chose and that was that.
Still the rabbit was far away from him and I thought he would have to give up. But it was not him.
Chase was there for sometime and slowly stoat started closing in. Finally he managed to reach for a paw and rabbit happened to slow down as the stoat bit its paw. Then he clung on to rabbits' bod and slowly reached his target, the neck and the final bit was fatal.
I was amazed by his focus and discipline. All that time his eyes were on the rabbit but he could have been distracted by other rabbits. If he started chasing after another one he would have to stay hungry because then he would have to start the chase from the beginning no matter how close they were, rabbits are good runners.
In that way he hunted down the rabbit which was 3 - 4 times large than him.
Unlike the stoat, most of us are running after several rabbits at a time. The result is quite clear. We end up with being tired and empty handed. What are these rabbits ? Those are our tasks in day to day life.
The complain most of us make is that 24 hours is not enough for us to finish our ' must do' s in a day. But the truth is it's more than enough. We run after this rabbit and that rabbit until our time is gone.
How did they do that?
You and me have 24 hours per a day. The owner of the world famous ' Virgin' brand, Richard Branson owns more than 360 companies. But still he manages to reply for the all mails which send to him by his employees, by himself while looking after all the other businesses. But does he have 48 or 72 hours per a day ? I doubt that.
All of you know about Leo Babuta @ Zen Habits. He is a full time blogger with massive 1, 60, 000+ subscribers and a writer who's been published both online and offline. In his early days he had to work at his 9 - 5 as well as writing to his blog. Yet he managed to post 3 - 5 times a week plus 1 - 3 guest posts on other blogs. And I didn't mention about working as a free lance writer for magazines. And apart from that he had a big family to care about with 6 kids. So how did he do all these things in 24 hours ?
One rabbit at a time
What makes all these difference? It's the power of focusing. Remember the stoats' rule, One rabbit at a time. If we can focus our mind on an one task at a time, it will boost our efficiency.
You love examples.don't you? Imagine you are writing a blog post and your browser stays minimized with inbox opened. Suddenly you get a mail.So you stop writing to peep into inbox. But after reading the mail you decide that you can reply to the mail later because you have this post to finish. Then you move to the post again but by then you've lost your flow so now getting back on the flow consumes your precious time. And when you start replying to that mail later, you find you have to go through it again to reply. If you open the mail after finishing the post it will save you a lot of time.
" I had limited time for writing. But I blocked that time off, in the early morning, during lunch, and a little after work. And I learned that I had to cut out all the distractions during this time, and focus, and just write."
That's how Leo Babuta has mentioned about the way he used to focus.
Improve the ability to concentrate
We must improve our ability to focus along with some discipline. It will help us to stay focused without distractions. There are some simple methods to improve concentration of your mind. Simple meditation methods can help you a lot with concentration. I tried this and it is really easy to follow. It worked for me. Try it and it's totally for FREE.
Be determined to have some disciplines and to continuously practice on concentration. The more you practice on focusing more you live.
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I like it! Nice work!
Fantastic! I loved hearing about the animal story - perfect example of focus! And you are so right - we are often chasing many things at once. Focus is the key to getting anything done, let alone becoming "successful". I have such a hard time with focus that I often have to chant "focus!" to myself! haha. Adult A.D.D. I'm sure!
Wow, that little Stoat is amazing, I had never heard of them!
Hmmmn, so how am I managing my 24 hours, like Richard Branson? Or chasing too many rabbits at once? Coudl maybe be a bit more focussed on one bunny! :)
Super metaphorical and excellent post!! Really great food for thought here.
Excellent...
Great work! + Many Thanks for the links provided.
Hi Vikum
Wow I don't know where to begin, this post was amazing!
First it got to me to look up the "stoat" as I love animals and have never heard of this one - what a cute little guy! Hard to believe it is so fierce.
And than as I read I felt like you were talking to me directly, like this post was written for me to read and once and for all get focused! (especially when you gave the example of writing a blog post and checking email - guilty!)
Anyhow what an inspirational piece! Thank you. I love living life with balance, but now would love to increase my focus even more :)
Suzen I'm glad that you love the story. And to tell you the truth me also having hard times with focusing but when it focused ultimately, its easy to carry on. So we should try harder.
@ everyone : Thanks a lot ! :)
Vikum,
As a lifelong vegetarian and compassionate towards all animals, I could have done without the "kill" story but I do understand what you are trying to say about concentration.
Hi Zengirl,
I'm really sorry if I hurt your feelings through my story.It's the potential that incident got was the thing which persuade me to use it.
Vikum,
Thanks for responding, I understand your point, maybe it could have shown other compassionate way? I think it is possible. By the way, I like your blogs and articles!
Hey Zengirl,
yeah agree.It was just I didn't think that it would hurt someones feelings. Anyways I give you a promise. I'll never use such examples again. Thanks a lot zengirl ! Hope to see you around !