Focus on One Thing

Olivia thought, Why not give it a try?

Archery would be different. Its outcome depended on the performance of one unlike her other team based extracurricular activities. For sure, archery was outside of her comfort zone, but the club’s meeting dates worked with her schedule so she signed up.

The first meeting came up pretty fast. Olivia joined other club members at the rear of the school’s main building and arrived in time to witness the instructor pulling archery equipment from a storage closet stuffed with football gear. Once the equipment was collected the instructor led the gaggle of future archers to an open playing field.

The playing field and Olivia had something in common. They were both operating outside of their comfort zone.  She was playing a non-team sport and the field, accustomed to the bumps and bruises inflicted by football teams, was experiencing something different. It was host to a line-up of round targets marked with white, blue, red, black and yellow rings placed on wood frames that looked like art class easels.

Olivia and her fellow newbie archers were handed an arm guard (to protect their forearm from a bow string slap!) and a long, curved, slender bow.  The instructor then directed them to take a position marked by strategically placed metal quivers holding nests of arrows. She thought, nest, because of the colored feathers on the end of each arrow.

The instructor demonstrated the steps required to release the arrow and hit the target. Now it was time for the newly schooled archers to do the same. Raise their bow, take aim at the target, and release the arrow to hit the target with the colorful design. The instructor began a slow walk behind the line-up of archers for reasons known only to an experienced instructor. 

Olivia raised her bow, took aim, released the arrow and missed the target. Picked up another arrow and missed. Picked up a third arrow and missed again. The arrows with their colored feathers stuck out of the ground like thorns on a rose bush. She noticed the instructor hadn’t missed her failed performance and thought, If the instructor wasn’t standing there, I’d have hit the target!

The instructor moved on. Olivia couldn’t resist looking at the club member on her right whose target looked like a porcupine and the club member on her left with their target hosting a party of festive guests. She thought, Why am I not like them? Why am I so bad?

Olivia persisted. She raised her bow, aimed, and released more arrows that missed the target. She thought, Why can’t I hit the target?  Her thoughts turned darker, I can’t hit the target and never will. I wasn’t good at that summer waitress job and they fired me. I’m a failure. 

It was then—she felt a presence. She turned and saw it was the instructor standing behind her. But the instructor didn’t walk on to observe club members with targets like a porcupine. The instructor stepped forward and said to Olivia, “Focus on one thing. Focus on the target.”

Olivia wasn’t told her stance was wrong or that she wasn’t releasing the arrow correctly or that she needed to quit the club because she would never hit the target. Focus on one thing. Focus on the target. That was the instructor’s simple message. 

And that’s what Olivia did. The fear of her instructor’s judgment was gone. The self-doubt inspired by comparison to fellow club members was gone. The memory of past failure was gone.  All she did was focus on one thing. All she did was focus on the target.

Olivia hit the target.

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