Ever end the day worn out but wondering what you accomplished. Coach Wooden warned, “Never confuse activity with achievement.”
Life without focus is wasted.
Worse yet, wrong focus guarantees wrong results.
Don’t focus on:
- Distant dreams.
- What you don’t want.
- Problems.
- Failure.
- Fear.
- Excuses.
- Obstacles. “I don’t focus on what I’m up against. I focus on my goals and I try to ignore the rest.” Venus Williams
- Activity.
Achievement requires focus.
Focal points for leaders:
- Developing talent, both yours and theirs. The number one priority of all leaders is self-development. That’s wise not selfish.
- Emotional environments. How do people feel at work? How do you make them feel?
- Creating clarity and simplicity.
- What you do for them, not what they do for you.
- Focusing the strengths of others.
- “Relationship before opportunity.” Jeremie Kubicec
- High impact behaviors and activities.
- Activities that enhance energy.
- What you want. “The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire not things we fear.” Brian Tracy
- Progress.
- Next steps.
- Solutions. “Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer.” Denis Waitley
Bonus: Giving and receiving feedback.
4 ways to create focus:
- Deadlines end dabbling. Set a timer for 12 minutes and focus on one thing.
- Use interruptions to clarify priorities and create next steps. (Thanks Doug Conant)
- Eliminate low priority activities.
- Complete a few easy tasks and use the energy to tackle something hard. Warning, too many easy tasks drain energy.
Added resource:
There are nearly 70 comments related to focus on my Facebook page as of 11/28/12.
Which of the 12 focal point should leaders focus on?
How do you find focus?
