One of the biggest barriers to success — in anything — is lack of focus.
That we might be unfocused is also a hard thing to admit about ourselves.
Because being focused seems too limiting — too small. We’re created for greatness, right?
“I want to get debt-free AND lose weight AND train for a half-marathon AND watch less television!”
“I have an awesome product that can help anyone — I want the whole world to know about it!”
Worthy goals, to be sure. But when we spread our resources too thin, we end up falling short everywhere. If you’re having trouble gaining traction in some area of your life, perhaps it’s because you’re lacking focus.
A few years ago, a speaking colleague shared that he’d been struggling to get his business to grow. Try as he might, he could never get any of his four profit centers to exceed anything but meager growth. Then he took a different tack. He focused all of his attention on just one of the revenue streams, virtually ignoring the other ones. The area he focused on grew like a magic beanstalk. Even more amazingly, the other three areas grew as well!
He explained that if you drive one thing to the moon, the rest will come along for the ride.
A person who has focused on getting more disciplined with her personal finances and marveled at how she suddenly starts eating better has seen this phenomenon first hand.
My speaking friend inspired me to do the same. At the time, our business had a lot of different things going on and we had a new baby join our family. We were going in what seemed like a million different directions. We had a retail store, an online store, a membership program and a speaking business. Kim and I eliminated a few things entirely and decided to focus on speaking, since that was our most profitable endeavor at the time. Much to our delight, our speaking business shot through the roof and the remaining revenue streams improved as well. Meanwhile, we decreased our expenses, were less stressed, and our life became a whole lot simpler.
For me, it became a powerful lesson in focus that I’ve never forgotten.
Focus isn’t easy, but the more focused you are, the easier everything else becomes.
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[ Lacking Focus, shot with my Canon Digital Rebel XS ]