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If you ever notice a professional
boxer going into a fight, he walks down that aisle to the ring as if in
some sort of trance. As an amateur he probably noticed, even waved back to
the crowd. He may have even jumped on the ropes and acted the fool before
his opponent, but not the professional. His total focus is on this fight,
this opponent, this moment in time. In many sports you might call this his
game face. It is as if there is no one in the arena but him. He is fixed
on the task at hand and nothing will disrupt his focus.
We envy these guys. We envy them even more when they win. We see the
determination for their task and wish we too could be there to cheer them,
to be in their corner, to be at the back of the bench, right on to the
last sound of the bell or gun or whistle that signals the game ends.
Likewise, toward the end of the game, we look at the same faces. Some of
them have lost that focus. Either they have begun to sense defeat or have
given up on themselves and their task. That is when we don’t want to be
there. We don’t want to be near people who do not have the focus to finish
the task or the game. We don’t want to associate ourselves with quitters
or losers. We even find ourselves booing their loss or booing their
character for not staying focused.
This happens everyday to everyone of us. If you notice the people around
you on a daily basis you can see those who are focused on their task and
those who are not. You can tell the difference between the successful and
the failures by their focus. It doesn’t take a person with a lot of PhD's
behind their name. You can see it in your work place, You call him or her
a suck up because he or she is attaining a better position in the company,
their moving up in the organization or they are making the first team. You
look at the way they focus on their job you will see why they are
advancing and others around them are not.
Show me a totally focused business student and I’ll show you the future
CEO . Show me an average guy with average intelligence and by his focus
I’ll show you a Rudy on the football team. The difference between average
and successful is simply focus.
Show me a successful marriage and I’ll show you two people who focus on
the marriage. Show me divorce and I will show you one or even two people
who did not focus on that marriage. Show me a happy family and I will show
you parents who focus on the family. Show me a family that have children
running the streets with the wrong crowd and I’ll show you a parent or
parents with no focus on the family. There are no secrets, but you must
also know there are no shortcuts. Each success is measured in focused
steps.
Sometime ago some fellow bloggers got into trading blogs about who was the
best western star and the best western ever made. I did some searching of
my own to see who I might pick as the best star of a western and the best
western ever made. My pick might not be the best in the eyes of many, but
it’s got to be among the top five. I picked Gregory Peck in The Big
Country. My reasoning was simple. The movie tells the story of a sea
captain who falls for a daughter of a rancher. She thinks she is marrying
a guy who is successful and will prove himself to anyone who might
challenge him. His focus is to challenge himself, to find his limitations
and be able to stand up for the man he feels he needs to be. He is not
interested in what other people thinks or cares. He wants to make sure he
measures up to himself.
Too many of us try to focus on what other people want and do what other
people expect us to do or be. Instead we should look within ourselves and
bring out the person inside of us who only needs to satisfy his inner self
in order to be a success.
We can’t all be successful CEO’s or Doctors or a person of notoriety, but
we can all be successful at what we are capable of. I have always told my
children and grandchildren that if being a garbage collector is all they
are capable of being, then be the best garbage collector who ever was.
To many of you who read this every month it may not seem like it, but at
some point I have to turn my focus to what I am going to write about. I
write it in my mind , I write it and rewrite it. I edit and reedit to get
it to sound like I have enough sense to write it to begin with. But it
does not come to me without focus.
Show me what a man is successful at doing and I will show you his focus.
Show me his failures and I will show you his lack of focus. |
