The Power of Focus

You have the power of choice and you can choose to do only one thing at a time. The key is to learn how to tackle one problem and concentrate all your efforts on what you are doing at the moment. Too often, however, we allow ourselves to be easily distracted by other things which are not necessarily important. As a result, we fail to perform better at what we do, and get poor results.

“The immature mind hops from one thing to another; the mature mind seeks to follow through.— Harry A. Overstreet

Furthermore, it becomes very easy to shift the blame to circumstances whereas the reason why we didn’t perform better lies within and it is simply because we cannot concentrate on one thing at a time. There is no doubt that doing less than we know we can do causes all kinds of guilt feelings manifesting themselves in certain ways. When people feel they have not done their best they feel they have cheated themselves— and they start to rationalize why they didn't perform as they know they were capable of. 

To solve this problem, learn to concentrate on one thought at a time, one action at a time, one goal at a time, one step at a time; the more you concentrate, the less time you will have for frustration. For example, it is said that Thomas Edison, perhaps the greatest inventor who has ever lived and who patented over 1000 commercial items including the light bulb and phonograph, would concentrate solely with what he was doing at that particular time and not do lots of similar things at the same time.

Moreover, it is worth noting that if you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results. For example, if you constantly dwell on negative outcomes you’ll have to learn how to imagine the outcomes you want, not those you don’t want. This is what needs to change before you can get the results you want—the images in your mind. Once that is achieved you’ll begin to see the results you desire because our mind is like a magnet—we are constantly being attracted to the dominant thoughts that occupy our minds. 

The key principle to understand is that whenever you are not satisfied with the results you are producing, whether it is in your business, grades, health, finances, family life, social life, job, emotional and mental health, your relationship with God and so on, start focusing on the things you have to change in order to get the results you desire. Then, visualize, imagine, concentrate on what you want, see it! See it vividly and your feelings will respond in a positive way, your physiology will respond to your commands. 

Your Activity this Week

1. Focus on the reasons why you can do what you want to do, not the reasons why you cannot do it. Take time to list these reasons down on paper and recite them every morning to keep them fresh in your mind.

2. Focus on the next step to take on your plan of action. Well, you cannot do this unless you have WRITTEN goals. Personally, this has helped me tremendously. I can tell you that my life changed when I started writing my goals down on paper and keeping a goal journal. This is one of my secrets to doing so much in less time, managing my time properly, and staying focused on my goals regardless of the distractions around me. Many people don’t know this secret yet… but now you know it. 

3. Focus on change (for every goal in every area of your life) and you’ll get results. For instance, start changing the negative thoughts in your mind that tell you it is impossible to accomplish what you want to do. Instead, replace this negative thought with a positive one that’s just the opposite of the negative. If it says you lack the skills, tell yourself “I will have the skills (be specific)", or something similar. When you practice changing every thought like that, it soon becomes a second nature, and you’ll be able to do it without conscious effort…which is good news. 

The Bottom Line

A focused mind is a powerful mind. Concentrate on one thought at a time, one action at a time, one goal at a time, one step at a time, one area of life at a time, one activity at a time, one day at a time, one week at a time, one month at a time… the more you concentrate, the less time you’ll have for frustration.

Gerard Ndzebir