“Most people have no idea of the giant capacity we can immediately command when we focus all of our resources on mastering a single area of our lives.”

–Tony Robbins

Teenagers have magical powers.

My daugher (3rd from left) and her cast mates in Willy Wonka

They have amazing reflexes. They don’t understand limitations. They’re incredibly creative. They’re care free. Their energy output could power a small city.

Maybe most importantly though, if they’re interested, teenagers have the seemingly mystical power to hyper-focus. A single thought will consume them, to the exclusion of everything else.

Adults tend to think of this as something bad, and it can be. The inability to see the consequences of getting bad grades. The all consuming narcissism. The unhealthy obsession with Justin Bieber. (650 million views? … gheez)

It can also be a great asset. Imagine the ability to set aside all other distractions and focus on one task until its done. Visualize an hour spent completely absorbed in a project that needed to get done. Like Tony Robbins says, many of us don’t know how much we can accomplish when we focus on one area of our lives.

Teenagers can teach us a little magic. Focus and we’ll learn a trick or two.

With great pleasure, attended the second showing of my kids’ middle school performance of Willy Wonka. The energy was unbelievable.