Can an Accountant have a Game Face?

That title is not the lead in to a joke.

The Olympics are here! We will be seeing a lot of highly motivated and fiercely focused athletes competing for medals over the next two weeks.

I wonder, in today's "knowledge worker" world where information flows across our screens at high speeds, where demands are biting at us from all angles, do we still have the ability to put everything aside and tackle one important item for a longer than brief period of time?

Olympic athletes talk a lot about intensity and focus in their workouts and preparation. They need to be singularly focused on the task at hand and be able to block everything out of their mind. You have seen it in some of the greater athletes of our time during their most crucial performances: Michael Jordan, Mia Hamm, Tiger Woods, etc. Check out Michael Phelps in the coming weeks. You see the intensity in their eyes and face!

Accountants have a lot going on; some of it is part of our job and our success, some if it is self-induced. There is no arguing with the many tasks we must complete in any one day and that technology tools are indispensible in meeting those demands. That said, there may be an advantage to developing and fostering your "game face", which we'll refer to as your ability to tune out everything else and fiercely focus on one (maybe your most important) task at hand. It builds productivity, confidence, and your "focus" muscles.

Sure we cannot focus on one task for too long, especially without a break. Tony Schwartz and Jim Loehr in their studies and book called The Power of Full Engagement, bring to our attention that we all have energy peaks and valleys and 90 to 120 minutes is normally the breaking point at which your energy levels slow down if you do not take time to "renew" yourself.

That is all good. I wonder if we even get close to that in a typical day, having the courage to focus, for a portion of our day, on the most important open item, and clearing one’s mind and activities from everything else. Ask yourself about your game face. Are you flexing and building it enough?