Concentration is a Killer

I continue to be baffled by an affliction that seems to worsen with age. It can be summed up as the mind hindering what the body already knows.

Intense concentration should, in theory, improve a human's ability to perfect something, but it seems more and more now if I want to screw something up, the easiest way is to concentrate as I'm doing it.

This could easily be an indicator of my intelligence - i.e. not high enough to do the thinking and the doing at the same time.

Some examples:

- Guitar. Playing a fairly new song from memory; just the chords. If I concentrate, i'll end up stopping wondering where I am, or fretting the wrong fret because i'm trying to remember what comes next, even though my hand has already gone roughly where it needs to go, so I must know the next position, but it doesn't stop my mind from desperately trying to work it out, ruining my hand's good work by, I suppose, making me hesitate before then over/under-compensating.

- Typing. Like most technical children of the 80's, I can type in a non-standard way that leads to amazement in older generations, but, as I continue this sentence and really try hard to concentrate on what i'm typing I will be sure to make some errors... On looking up I actually didn't make any this time, but you get the point.

- Walking straight when drunk.
- Walking on a narrow beam.
- Carrying a full glass evenly to avoid spilling any of the drink.
- Kicking a ball accurately... the list is probably endless.

I'm really not describing anything unique to me here. What I could use though is a tried and tested method for either convincing my mind to help me rather than hinder me, or at very least to leave my body alone to get on with it. Is this what the drug culture of the artistic world is all about?