Healthy Focus, Healthy Perspective
Perhaps the most profound quality of successful people is their ability to focus. Successful people set goals, targets and objectives, and follow the process through to completion with a high degree of discipline. Successful podcast host and entrepreneur, John Lee Dumas, puts it this way: FOCUS stands for Follow One Course Until Success and that is a powerful perspective to have. There will be many opportunities to veer off track or move onto another project, but when you know what you have been called to do, you need to make it a priority and put all your effort into completing it. Most people have been conditioned to move from one fad to the next, or start a mission and then abandon it when they hit some turmoil…often just before they would have experienced a breakthrough. But successful people keep moving forward even when they experienced difficulties or roadblocks.
Steve Jobs once said that you absolutely have to love what you do because if you don’t, you will quit the moment it gets difficult. And you can bet…things will get difficult. But passion and love for your mission will allow you to sustain momentum during the difficult days you will inevitably face.
One way to cultivate a healthy focus is to ask: How do you define success? Is it money, peace, happiness, status or job title? Do you live in ego or do you live to help others? Will money and material things make you happy? These are important questions that should not be overlooked. When you seek to help others and provide value, an abundance of prosperity and kindness will come into your life. On the other hand, when you chase after money and status, you will always be searching for more and never be truly fulfilled. I always explain to my patients and clients that they should enjoy the process because this is where the learning experiences come from and where they develop future skills. If they only value the end result, they will always be left wanting more. The best approach is to set both short-term and long-term goals. Short-term goals will keep you moving forward and give you the affirmation to continue. Long-term goals allow you to set up your paradigm and follow through with the steps required to complete the mission.
Ample Discipline, Abundant Success
There are times throughout the journey of life where you will want to rebel or deviate from what is right. Nothing in life comes easy and the temptation to stray from your purpose will always be there. It may come in the form of delinquent friends, peer pressure, lack of motivation, laziness and much more. But remember that the people who succeed do what is right even when wrong is the easier option. They are so confident in themselves and their purpose that they don’t even hear the negative noise from the outside. They have tunnel vision and they will sacrifice instant gratification for long-term happiness. I often ask myself, how badly do I want it and what will I give up to get it? It may mean working late nights, Saturdays, early mornings or holidays. I have seen too many friends and peers give up because they thought the process was taking too long and they didn’t realize that they were so close to attaining what they desired.
Failure is not one massive event. It is a series of bad habits, decisions and rituals that compound over time. If most people didn’t live in an unconscious state, they would see their poor decisions adding up. The same is true for a positive outcome. There is no “overnight success”. It takes years of hard work combined with informed decisions and habits to achieve success. Any musician, dancer or actor will tell you that you rarely see the practice, failures, rehearsals, education, growth and development that goes on for years before they ever become recognized, but the daily progress and small steps eventually lead to greater rewards in the long-term. It is important, therefore, to continually educate yourself and build your internal worth. This will lead you to experience greater achievement in time. Little by little, day by day, and you will see these positive actions and affirmations pay dividends later on in your journey. As Tony Robbins once said, you see progress and growth when “your shoulds become your musts.” Replace I should do that with I must do that. You accomplish things when they must be a part of your day and life.
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