Focusing on Right Thing

THE DISTRACTIONS OF LIFE

I don't know about you, but it is some time difficult to stay focused on the right things, perhaps the most important things as we try and make our business work. It may be different for you, but I don't have an office at this time, I work at the kitchen table and everyone that comes into the house comes through there. We have phone calls, texts, Facebook notifications, etc going on all of the time. And of course my wife is here and after 51 years together we love to take every opportunity to speak and share with one another. It is a challenge! This morning my wife and grand daughter had the television on in the adjoining room and I found that very distracting as I was trying to work. To deal with that I put on my headphones to cancel the noise. It worked and I was able to accomplish the task at hand.

THE PROBLEM OF FOCUSING

So... .focusing is a problem... I read an interesting story that illustrates how focused some folks can be... I'm not there yet. It seems that there was a man who owned a small restaurant in Northern New Jersey. It was a fine place to eat but the owner was always more interested in profit rather than a good product. One day he was stricken at the diner with severe chest pains, and the rescue squad was called in to take him to the hospital. There was deep concern he might have had a heart attack. As he was being taken out of the diner he motioned for his son to come closer to him so he could whisper a message to him. His son thinking this would perhaps be the final words he would share with his father rushed over. The father whispered to his son, "MAKE SURE THEY CUT THE ROAST BEEF REAL THIN."

There was a man that could focus, even in the midst of distractions.

SO WHAT CAN WE DO?

I've been basically self employed for almost 50 years and this is what I learned early on. If you want to be successful in reaching your goals, then right them down. Not only write them down, if possible write down the steps you have to accomplish to finish that goal or thing on your "To Do" list. This morning I spend about an hour outlining all of the things I wanted to accomplish this week, (including more WA training). I ended up with 5 specific items that I felt were important. I put them in 5 columns and made a list of steps that need to be done under each heading to complete that goal. Will I get them all finished? Maybe not, but I already have a number of them completed. Would I have gotten as much done without the list, experience has taught me that I probably would not have.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Let me encourage each of you to stay focused, try and get away from distractions, but if that dosn't work, at least you will have your list to fall back on. Sometimes that is all of the encouragement you will need. We all want to succeed so keep on keeping on in this challenging life we have chosen.