Tag Archives: Focus

Take Action Now

What are the things that you have been putting off, avoiding, ignoring in hopes that somehow they will resolve themselves and you won’t ever have to deal with them? How’s that working for you?

If you are someone who procrastinates, it’s time. Time to face the reality that the project on your to-do list that you’ve been avoiding isn’t going to magically cross itself of your list. The reality is that you have two choices:

  1. Remove It From Your To-Do List — Ask yourself if it’s something that really needs to be done. Would having it done contribute to your health, well-being, or happiness or is it something that found its way onto your to-do list when you made a habit of busy-ness?
  2. Do It Now! — If it’s something that you definitely need to do, take action. If it’s a big project, first chunk it down into manageable pieces. But don’t delay any more. Do it now.

You will feel better when you take either of these steps. Why?

  • Removing the item from your to-do list (whether you did the task or not), will help you feel lighter. It’s the to-do list equivalent of cleaning out your closet (or garage). Even if you don’t have a sense of accomplishment from having completed the task, you’ll have a sense of relief from not having to worry about it anymore. And as you discovered, it wasn’t really important anyhow. At least, not compared to other things vying for your energy and attention.
  • When you take action, you’ll get a double benefit: (1) you’ll feel good about yourself for responsibly handling something that needs attention, and (2) you’ll feel good because making progress itself always makes us feel good. It’s the difference between walking out of a meeting feeling as though nothing was accomplished compared to leaving a meeting in which decisions were made and next steps were clear.

Now on to the next item on your to-do list!

Here’s hoping you avoid busy-ness and stay focus on the most important things!

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Laws of Success

Book on the beach

Napoleon Hill’s work and his book, Think and Grow Rich, have influenced many people within the personal development field. The basic premise is that our focus needs to be on being the type of person to whom whatever it is we are seeking naturally flows. To be successful, we must be willing to dream and pursue our dreams, with a burning desire and unwavering commitment, even in the face of adversity and failure.
What is even more compelling than Napoleon Hill’s book Think and Grow Rich, though, is his book, The Laws of Success, in which he outlines Fifteen Laws of Success. These are:

  1. A Definite Chief Aim — a clearly defined thing you want with burning desire to accomplish or achieve or bring to the world. Hill writes, “There is some one thing that you can do better than anyone else in the world could do it. Search until you find out what this particular line of endeavor is, make it the object of your definite chief aim and them organize all your forces and attack it with the belief that you are going to win.”
  2. Self-Confidence — In its most simple form, this is seeing the best in yourself and believing in yourself.
  3. The Habit of Saving — Develop the habit of saving 20% of everything you earn
  4. Initiative and Leadership — Do that which out to be done without being told to do it, develop the habit of initiative by taking some definite action each day that will carry you nearer your definite chief aim. Leadership is based on knowing your employees, knowing your business, and knowing yourself.
  5. Imagination — Imagination is necessary to create a vision of something not yet created or present.
  6. Enthusiasm — An enthusiastic state of mind will bring energy and momentum to what you are doing. “It is the vital force that impels action.” For more, see video 8 below.
  7. Self-Control — Self-control is what “directs your action so that it will build up and not tear down.” Self-control is the result of thought-control, of deliberately and persistently directing your thoughts and energy in productive, supportive directions. See video 6 below for more on this.
  8. Habit of Doing More Than Paid For — This is the habit of performing more service and better service that that for which you are paid. Think Zappos! here. As Tony Hsieh and the gang at Zappos! found, by doing more than what you are paid for, you are planting seeds that will eventually bear fruit. See video 3 below.
  9. Pleasing Personality — This is described in detail in video 5 below.
  10. Accurate Thought — This is the principle of seeing things as they are, and investigating rather than categorically believing all your thoughts. It requires the ability to distinguish facts from interpretation. See video 12 below.
  11. Concentration — “The act of focusing the mind upon a given desire until ways and means for its realization have been worked out and successfully put into operation.”
  12. Co-operation — Cooperation is what drives organized effort.
  13. Failure — Hill says that what we term “failure” is often more accurately described as “temporary defeat”. He goes on to say that “sound character is usually the handiwork of reverses, and setbacks, and temporary defeat.” So embrace it rather than fearing it!
  14. Tolerance — Tolerance is the path to developing positive and effective relationships with others, building bridges and furthering our world toward a state of peace.
  15. The Golden Rule — This is the “guiding star” of the Laws of Success. Because you reap what you sow, treat others as you wish they would treat you, were the situation reversed.

Here are the Success Principles, as delivered directly by Napoleon Hill:

1. Definiteness of Purpose

2. The Mastermind Principle

3. Going the Extra Mile

4. Applied Faith

5. A Pleasing Personality

6. Self Discipline

7. Positive Mental Attitude

8. Enthusiasm

9. Personal Initiative

10. Overcoming Adversity and Defeat

11. Creative Vision

12. Accurate Thinking

13. Cosmic Habit Force

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What Are You Looking For?

Yesterday, I arrived in San Francisco, and took BART into the city from SFO. I walked from the Embarcadero BART station (in the Financial District) to a bus stop to catch a bus to the place where I was staying. There was more commotion than usual at the bus stop, because there was a commercial being filmed there. As I stood there waiting for the bus, I watched the people involved in the commercial, and noticed that most of them were smoking cigarettes (including the actors being filmed).

After a few minutes, I realized that it was probably too early in the afternoon for the bus to be running, so I began walking toward my destination. I walked through Chinatown and North Beach, and was absolutely amazed by the number of people I saw smoking cigarettes. People taking smoke breaks while standing outside their office buildings, people lighting up as they stepped onto the sidewalk from the Italian restaurants of North Beach, elderly men in Chinatown puffing on cigarettes as they stood and chatted, people walking up and down the streets with cigarettes held nonchalantly between their fingers. It seemed as though well over half the people I saw were smoking cigarettes!

“I had no idea there were so many smokers in San Francisco!” I thought to myself. I was really stunned. Until, that is, I reflected on what I had been doing. Once I saw the first smokers after walking away from the bus stop, my eyes were drawn people with cigarettes. I found myself looking at people’s hands as I watched them walk down the sidewalk. And I did see lots of cigarettes.

Maybe you’ve experienced this same phenomenon…

  • Ever bought a new car only to immediately see that they seem to be everywhere you turned as you drove through town?
  • Maybe you started noticing how quickly many people eat only after consciously deciding to eat more slowly.
  • Have you ever noticed that there are people who always seem to find flaws in everything?
  • Are you one of those people who always sees what’s wrong?

When we pay attention to a particular thing, it’s as though we tune into that particular frequency. If you look for typos when you review marketing materials, you are more likely to see them than if you are just reading through a marketing brochure for the content.

I choose to see the good in people and the world. I hold firmly to the belief that we are all doing the best we can, and that when we know better, we do better. I’ve talked with plenty of people who disagree with my perspective. They say that there are evil people in the world, that some people are just bad. And they find lots of evidence to support their beliefs. If it works for them to hold onto those beliefs, if they think those beliefs will protect them, that’s entirely their business. It’s not that I believe that everyone’s choices and behavior are always optimal or even okay, but I do believe that when people do things that/to hurt others, they are acting from fear or misguided beliefs. Who knows, perhaps they are just oblivious to the impact they are having.

All I know is that when I come from a place of believing that people are doing the best they can, I feel better about my interactions with others, and my interactions with them seem to go better as well. I saw some people cut in front of me and a big line of others recently, and instead of grumbling angrily about how awful they were (like the people behind me were doing), I just assumed they didn’t realize we had all been waiting in a line, and I walked right up to them to let them know. Because I really did assume they hadn’t realized we were waiting, my tone wasn’t filled with frustration or anger, but rather a desire to be helpful. They looked up and saw the line and even looked embarrassed as they thanked me for letting them know.

Hasn’t there ever been a time in your life when you seemed to go completely unconscious because you were lost in thought or enthralled in a conversation or just plain exhausted? The question I often ask myself, and the question I put to you is this:

Are you looking for things you’d like to find?

The reality is that you and I will find whatever it is we are looking for. We are smart and resourceful and competent people. Given that we both know that, are you looking for things in the world:

  • that you want to see?
  • that bring joy to your life?
  • that help you belief in the goodness in people?
  • that make you grateful to be alive?
  • that fill you with love and inspire you to be the kind of person you want to be?

What you choose to look for, you will invariably find.

Choose what you look for wisely!

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Do The Most Important Things

There’s a poem I love called Summer Day, by Mary Oliver.  I heard her speak recently, at the 2010 Women’s Conference organized by Maria Shriver. And to my utter delight, she read most of my favorite poems, including Summer Day:

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean–
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down–
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?

There are a number of things I love about this poem. The curiosity and openness, that it names the importance of paying attention to what is right in front of me, that it reminds me of how precious every moment of life is. Mostly, I’m inspired by the call to consider, and focus on, and do, the things that matter most.

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

What are you doing with your one wild and precious life?

Stop for a moment to think about how you spend your time. Who is in charge? Is it you or whoever emails you or calls you or stops by your office asking for help? Are you living your life intentionally or reactively? Are you spending your time focused on what matters most or are you doing things that are urgent but maybe not important?

How can you focus on what matters most — in your job or your life — if you don’t know what the Most Important Things are? Start each week, better yet each day, by stopping. Ask yourself what you want to accomplish and how you want your interactions with others to be. What are the Most Important Things for you today?

It’s time for you to take control of your time. It’s time to focus on the most important things. These are the big rocks in your life. If you don’t handle them first, my guess is that you’ll have a tough time fitting them in around all the things that vie for your attention and your energy.

Are you ready to focus on what matters most to you? You’ve probably read all the research findings about multi-tasking. The bottom line is that we are not able to effectively multi-task. When we try, we are 25% less efficient in doing what we are trying to do. Give yourself a chance to focus fully on what you are doing. Is email a big distraction for you? If so:

  • Decide on certain times of day to check email, and set expectations with your colleagues, customers, friends and family that you will only be checking email at those times. This can be as often as once every hour, if you like. Tell people that if there is something urgent that they need you to handle or know before you’ll check email next, they can call you. Personally, I check email only once a day.
  • Turn off your email message notification sound on your computer and on your cell phone. Leave it off.
  • When you are away from work, turn your PDA/smart phone off. Focus on whatever you are doing. Give it your full attention.

Spend your first 90 minutes at work each day in the following way:

Eliminate Distractions:

  • Silence your cell phone.
  • Forward your office phone to voicemail.
  • Close your office door.

Get Clear:

  • Clarify and review what is most important for you to do today.

Work on the Most Important Things (MITs):

  • Pick one or more of your big rocks, and work on it in a completely focused way.
  • If you complete one of your MITs within the 90 minutes, begin working on a second MIT.

Take a Moment to Breathe:

  • Stop working once 90 minutes have passed, but before you move onto the next thing, take a moment to just stop and take a few deep breaths.

Life is a precious gift. Today only happens once. You can choose to focus on what matters most. I’d love to hear how things shift for you once you do!

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