“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand.  The sun’s rays do not burn until brought into focus.” – Alexander Graham Bell

 I talked with a man not too long ago who told me of all the things he did on this job.  It was easy to see that part of him was tired and worn because of all the tasks he took part in; the other part was a bit proud because he thought of it as multi-tasking.  I asked him “But what is it that you are really good at?  What is it you do best?”  He looked at me rather puzzled and thought a bit, and then he said “I don’t know.  I don’t think I do anything really well, just a lot of things okay.”

LACK OF FOCUS

We are living in a time when it is not so much what you do but how much you do.  This type of thinking is not good for Success-Minded People or for those they work for.  Excellence is no longer the driving force in business but rather what will get buy.  Tony Robbins said “One reason few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power.  Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular.” 

 THIS ONE THING

The old saying, “If you want something done give it to a busy person” is not really a complement.  This is of course if the “busy person” is busy doing many tasks.  If that is the case you will only get mediocre – and people do not pay for mediocre.  Success-Minded People must be people who are busy at what they do best and not at what they merely can do.  D.L. Moody said “Give me a man who says this one thing I do, and not those fifty things I dabble in.”  Excellence comes from focus and focus can only be on one thing at a time.

 STEPS TO FOCUS

Allow me to give you a few points of focus that you can use to help yourself achieve excellence:

1. Know what your strengths are.  What are you good at?  What are you called to do in life?  What is it that makes you the best?  W. Clement Stone said “Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement.”  You must know what it is you do before you can do it.
2. Learn to say no.  Success-Minded People tend to think they can do anything and therefore try to.  Just because you can do a task does not mean you should do a task.  Learn to work in your strengths and to be able to say no to the rest.  Bring excellence to your work and honesty to the things you cannot be excellent at.  Scientist John Cormack said “Focus is a matter of deciding what things you’re not going to do.”
3. Get your heart and head right.  Do not allow pride to make you show off to others by taking on more than you should and do not allow false humility to make you back off on something you can excel at.  God has gifted you to do some things with excellence and to do so is not prideful.  Never point out how good you are, let others do that.  Likewise, never do those things you are not good at just because you want to show others how valuable and talented you are.  No one is impressed with just getting by.

 © 2011 John Patrick Hickey