Blog - Getting Focused
“The person who chases two rabbits catches neither” (Confucius)
How great is this quote, so simple yet it amplifies so perfectly the power of focus. I’m sure we can all relate to the following experience. You’re sitting at home watching the Winter Olympic Games and you are watching the bobsled event. You say to yourself “who even bobsleds and how do you even get into that sport.” You then say “I bet if I made bobsled my sole focus I could have gone to Olympic Games.” In this observation you have uncovered a simple truth to success. If you make anything your sole focus you are likely to achieve amazing success in that area of your life. So why doesn’t everyone just do this? He is a list of several factors that distract our focus and cause us to chase several rabbits not just two.
Well first it helps to figure out what we want to be focused on. Most of us have several areas of our life that we want to improve and this is usually a good place to start. If you want to be in better shape use this a starting point. Make being in amazing shape one of your major focuses in your life. This doesn’t mean you have to be at the gym 5 hours a day, it just means that eating healthy and exercising will be the first thing on your mind when you wake up and the last thing on your mind when you go to sleep. Set a goal for example lose 20lbs, then break that goal down into smaller goals so it doesn’t seem overwhelming lose 2lbs per week for 10 weeks. If you make this a major focus of your life and you don’t let distractions creep in there is zero percent chance that you will not be successful.
Now that you have used the power of focus to achieve one goal in your life you can begin to apply it to other areas. I once heard Joe Rogan say something really amazing while he was announcing a UFC event. Joe said “once you learn how to become great at one thing, you can learn how to become great at anything.” Pretty powerful stuff, basically what Joe was saying is once you have determined the criteria for success you can apply that same criteria to any area of your life.
Here is an example of how lack of focus in my life lead to years of hardship. It wasn’t until I uncovered my passion and my definite purpose that I was able to get focus and began experiencing some real success.
I started my business career in that bar business. While I was in university I was working as a bartender and eventually became a bar manager. Once I finished school I began looking for a bar of my own to buy. I found a bar just down the street from the one I was managing called the Treehouse and made an offer to buy it. When I took over Treehouse was dong $450 000 a year in sales and operating just below breakeven. For three years Treehouse was my only focus, I worked long hours and nothing could distract me from turning the business around. My friends would call me to go out and would tell them no sorry I have to be at the bar. In just three years I was able to take sales from $450 000 to
$1 000 000 and profit from -$20 000 to over $150 000 per year. This was an amazing accomplishment and I was finally earning some good money, but then something happen I started looking for what was next. I felt that I could never achieve the level of success I dreamed of just owning one bar I would have to do more. So I expanded and opened and upscale fast food restaurant and two other bars. The problem was I had spread myself too thin and now my focus wasn’t on just one business it was on several. This turned out to be a huge disaster and I went from making $150 000 per year to losing
$200 000 per year. After a few years of battling it out it was time to cut my losses and I was able to sell one bar and closed the other two businesses. I had to get back to basics and one again Treehouse became my one and only business and my sole focus. After the first year I went from losing $200 000 to making $60 000, in year two I made $118 888 and by year three sales had once again reached
$1 000 000 and this time I was profiting $250 000 per year. You might be asking how I was profiting more but that is a whole other blog. The short answer is that in every hardship there is a lesson and my lesson from those years of tremendous struggle taught me how to run my business way tighter and this allowed me to maximize profits. If I would have just kept my focus and making Treehouse an efficient machine the 4 years I wasted pursuing other endeavors I would have had a million dollars in the bank.
The moral of the story is this. Even if you are working a job that might not be a part of your definite purpose you can still use the power that comes from getting focused. If you’re a teacher make it your focus to be the best teacher in your school. If you’re a janitor make it your focus to keep your building at world class standards. If you’re a cab driver make it your focus to ensure your passengers have and amazing ride. No matter where you are in your life the power of focus can be applied, and once you become world class at whatever it is that you’re doing the opportunities will arise for you to follow your dreams, just as they did for me. By remaining focused on only Treehouse I was able to make an income that allowed me the freedom to purse my dream of helping others and that is why you are reading this blog today. So don’t wait until tomorrow start right now and get focused on achieving your dreams.
“The person who chases two rabbits catches neither” (Confucius)
How great is this quote, so simple yet it amplifies so perfectly the power of focus. I’m sure we can all relate to the following experience. You’re sitting at home watching the Winter Olympic Games and you are watching the bobsled event. You say to yourself “who even bobsleds and how do you even get into that sport.” You then say “I bet if I made bobsled my sole focus I could have gone to Olympic Games.” In this observation you have uncovered a simple truth to success. If you make anything your sole focus you are likely to achieve amazing success in that area of your life. So why doesn’t everyone just do this? He is a list of several factors that distract our focus and cause us to chase several rabbits not just two.
- We are addicted to experiencing new things. How many of us have taken up a sport or a hoppy and for several months it was all we could think about. We bought all the best gear and read all the information we could get our hands on about it. Then something happens the newness of it wears off and we begin to have our attention drawn to the next thing that will allow us to experience something new again. If you are always chasing the next new experience or the next rabbit you will always struggle to achieve true success in anything.
- Influence from what we think we should do or what we have been told to do by society or family. If as a child you loved playing music and that is all you wanted to do 24/7 what were you told by everyone around you? You need to have a backup plan, go get and education, music won’t pay your bills etc. etc. This is advice from people that gave up on their major purpose because they became discouraged and distracted. If you have uncovered your passions there should be nothing that stands in your way of achieving your dreams
- We live in a world where everyone is bidding for your attention. Advertisers are trying to sell you their products or get you to attend their programmes. Family and friends apply pressure to conform with the norm and go out and party and be social. TV shows and movies are trying to get you to watch. All of this is a battle for your attention and without a laser like focus you are just floating and if your just floating someone is going to be able to easily tug you in their direction
Well first it helps to figure out what we want to be focused on. Most of us have several areas of our life that we want to improve and this is usually a good place to start. If you want to be in better shape use this a starting point. Make being in amazing shape one of your major focuses in your life. This doesn’t mean you have to be at the gym 5 hours a day, it just means that eating healthy and exercising will be the first thing on your mind when you wake up and the last thing on your mind when you go to sleep. Set a goal for example lose 20lbs, then break that goal down into smaller goals so it doesn’t seem overwhelming lose 2lbs per week for 10 weeks. If you make this a major focus of your life and you don’t let distractions creep in there is zero percent chance that you will not be successful.
Now that you have used the power of focus to achieve one goal in your life you can begin to apply it to other areas. I once heard Joe Rogan say something really amazing while he was announcing a UFC event. Joe said “once you learn how to become great at one thing, you can learn how to become great at anything.” Pretty powerful stuff, basically what Joe was saying is once you have determined the criteria for success you can apply that same criteria to any area of your life.
Here is an example of how lack of focus in my life lead to years of hardship. It wasn’t until I uncovered my passion and my definite purpose that I was able to get focus and began experiencing some real success.
I started my business career in that bar business. While I was in university I was working as a bartender and eventually became a bar manager. Once I finished school I began looking for a bar of my own to buy. I found a bar just down the street from the one I was managing called the Treehouse and made an offer to buy it. When I took over Treehouse was dong $450 000 a year in sales and operating just below breakeven. For three years Treehouse was my only focus, I worked long hours and nothing could distract me from turning the business around. My friends would call me to go out and would tell them no sorry I have to be at the bar. In just three years I was able to take sales from $450 000 to
$1 000 000 and profit from -$20 000 to over $150 000 per year. This was an amazing accomplishment and I was finally earning some good money, but then something happen I started looking for what was next. I felt that I could never achieve the level of success I dreamed of just owning one bar I would have to do more. So I expanded and opened and upscale fast food restaurant and two other bars. The problem was I had spread myself too thin and now my focus wasn’t on just one business it was on several. This turned out to be a huge disaster and I went from making $150 000 per year to losing
$200 000 per year. After a few years of battling it out it was time to cut my losses and I was able to sell one bar and closed the other two businesses. I had to get back to basics and one again Treehouse became my one and only business and my sole focus. After the first year I went from losing $200 000 to making $60 000, in year two I made $118 888 and by year three sales had once again reached
$1 000 000 and this time I was profiting $250 000 per year. You might be asking how I was profiting more but that is a whole other blog. The short answer is that in every hardship there is a lesson and my lesson from those years of tremendous struggle taught me how to run my business way tighter and this allowed me to maximize profits. If I would have just kept my focus and making Treehouse an efficient machine the 4 years I wasted pursuing other endeavors I would have had a million dollars in the bank.
The moral of the story is this. Even if you are working a job that might not be a part of your definite purpose you can still use the power that comes from getting focused. If you’re a teacher make it your focus to be the best teacher in your school. If you’re a janitor make it your focus to keep your building at world class standards. If you’re a cab driver make it your focus to ensure your passengers have and amazing ride. No matter where you are in your life the power of focus can be applied, and once you become world class at whatever it is that you’re doing the opportunities will arise for you to follow your dreams, just as they did for me. By remaining focused on only Treehouse I was able to make an income that allowed me the freedom to purse my dream of helping others and that is why you are reading this blog today. So don’t wait until tomorrow start right now and get focused on achieving your dreams.