A martial arts student approaches his instructor with a question. “I’d like to improve my knowledge of the martial arts. In addition to learning from you, I’d like to study with another teacher to learn another style. What do you think of this idea?”
The master answered, “The hunter who chases two rabbits catches neither one.”
Thomas Edison famously said, “Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.” Edison spent months and years inventing the light bulb, the phonograph and the motion picture camera. These items didn’t come about from just a flash of inspiration. You must determine where your strengths lie and then focus them on your objectives. Focus is the key word.
It is simply a way of mobilizing and concentrating on power. Take the water in a steam boiler. It has no more potential than the water in your shower. But the water in the steam boiler, when energized and focused, can propel locomotives. The unfocused, non-energized water in the bathtub just goes down the drain.
How many times have you heard an athlete talk about focus? I love to watch and study athletes as they are getting ready to compete. You can see them running through their races or routines in their minds. Nothing can distract them. It’s easy to maintain focus when everything is going well, but great athletes keep their focus when they are staring at defeat. A sure way to fail is to lose focus.
The same is true in business. The most common complaints: Too many irons in the fire. Too many projects spinning at one time. Too many interruptions. Too many phone calls. Too many emails. Too many things to do. Too little time.
Decide what is most important. Stay focused as best you can, and don’t just let things happen to you – not when you can make things happen.
Make a list every day or week and prioritize your activities. Scale back the amount of time you spend on meetings. They can be the biggest timewasters of all. Learn to delegate, and make sure all members of your team follow through on assigned tasks. Set aside a specific time of day to return phone calls and emails and keep distractions to a minimum. In other words, set rules about how others use your time. And if you are not the boss, work with your supervisor to make sure you agree on priorities.
Years ago, when I played golf for the University of Minnesota, my coach, Les Bolstad, drove home the point about focus. I remember practicing and getting ready for the NCAA Golf Championship Tournament at Purdue University. Les told me to focus on each shot as if it was going to be my last. I would say to myself, “This is the last drive I‘m ever going to hit, so it better be good. This is the last putt that I’m ever going to make, and so on.”
I’ve carried that philosophy through to my work life. “This is the last speech I’m ever going to give, so it better be good. This is the last book I’m ever going to write … This is the last acquisition I’m ever going to make …”
It takes that kind of focus to succeed. I’m convinced that one of the top reasons that keeps people from getting what they want is a lack of focus. People who focus on what they want to achieve and prosper. Those who don’t, struggle.
“Successful people maintain a positive focus in life no matter what is going on around them,” said Jack Canfield, author of “The Success Principles.” “They stay focused on their past successes rather than their past failures, and on the next action steps they need to take to get them closer to the fulfillment of their goals rather than all the other distractions that life presents to them.”
And he makes an especially important point: to focus on past successes rather than failures. I’m convinced that fear of failure, and concentrating on what happens if things go wrong, is a focus-killer.
When you worry about the what-ifs instead of what can be, you suck the energy out of the project. Sure, you need to be aware of obstacles. Plan for success, not failure. Focus instead on how to avoid or fix problems in order to achieve the result you want. Keep your eye on the prize!
Mackay’s Moral: To avoid fuzzy thinking, keep your goals in focus.
