The power of focus

BY DANIEL COLE

The key to reaching high levels of performance and productivity in life, especially in 2021, given the ongoing pandemic and global unrest is to stay focused. There is so much out there competing for your attention. At an interval of ten minutes, if not less, your phone is getting a notification. Be it an email, a post from your friend on Instagram, who said what on Facebook, the family WhatsApp group chat, who is playing who at EPL this weekend, who posted what on Twitter, to name a few. The reality is attention is our new currency. Your responsibility is to exchange it wisely.

The ability to concentrate single-mindedly on your most important task, to do it well and to finish it completely, is the key to great success, achievement, respect, status, and happiness in life. The key to success is action, but most importantly, a focused action. The current outcomes of your life have much to do with what you’ve been focusing on. Anthony Robbins has rightly said, “Your life is controlled by what you focus on.” Where focus goes, energy flows.

This new year shouldn’t be a year you dissipate time, energy, emotions or resources on things that are inconsequential. Time is the currency of life, but you and I don’t have it in abundant supply. Focus your life on things that really count. Focus on things that give you a sense of meaning, purpose and significance. Don’t major on minor and don’t minor on major. William Matthews has rightly said, “The first law of success is concentration, to bend all the energies to one point, and to go directly to that point, looking neither to the right nor the left.”

You need three key qualities to develop the habits of focus and concentration, which are all learnable. They are decision, discipline, and determination. First, make a decision on what you want to focus on. Pick a goal and decide to see it through until completion. Secondly, discipline yourself to stay on track. Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment. And finally, stay determined to see the cause through. There is no nobility in starting and not finishing. Let people hold you accountable, do something every day that moves you a step closer in the achievement of that goal.

One of the very worst uses of time is to do something very well that need not be done at all. Focus is a product of clarity; clarity about what you want, and clarity about the steps required to get it. The great Norman Vincent Peale once said, “When every physical and mental resource is focused, one’s power to solve a problem multiplies tremendously.” To make 2021 a significant and productive year, what are the skills you need to develop? Focus your time and resources to those areas.

Remember the 80/20 Pareto principle that says 20% of your activities will account for 80% of your results. What are your 20% activities that will give you 80% results? Once you identified them, focus on them. Goethe said, “The things that matter most must never be at the mercy of the things that matter least.”  Focus on your strength, not your weakness. Focus on your key result areas.

Focus, patience and consistency are key factors to success in any life endeavour. There’s an old saying that “By the yard it’s hard, but inch by inch anything’s a cinch.” A person with comparatively moderate powers will accomplish much if they apply themselves wholly and indefatigably to one thing at a time. Confucius wrote, “A journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step.” You can accomplish the biggest task in your life by focusing and disciplining yourself to take it just one step at a time. Your job is to go as far as you can see. You will then see far enough to go further.