Focus

Posted on October 24, 2014 by Christ Centered Coaching-- Jim Wyrostek, One of Thousands of Christian Coaches on Noomii.

Focus:
Once you have established and clearly defined a vision, you must focus on achieving it. You must take steps to begin to implement the vision.

“I have always said that vision without implementation, is hallucination.”
If you have seen it and do not begin to implement it, it is just a dream.

There is nothing wrong with dreams. However, dreams are not reality until they are acted on and put into motion.

Webster’s Definition of Focus:

: to cause (something, such as attention) to be directed at something specific
: to direct your attention or effort at something specific
: to concentrate attention or effort

Your vision is the something specific you are to direct your attention to until it is accomplished.

Without focus and discipline, you will be easily swayed to change of lose sight of your target or vision.

One reason horses, that run in horse racing, have blinders on is to prevent them from looking anywhere other than straight ahead.
The jockeys do not want their horses to see what’s on the right or left. They want them to only see the track ahead.

That’s focus. That is how you are to run your life and business. Look at the path ahead of you, your vision. Not what is on the right, left or behind.

There are so many examples of how important focus is but one of the more recent one would be the situation of the Navy Seals in rescuing Capt. Richard Phillips from the movie……‘Captain Phillips’

On April 8, 2009, four armed Somali pirates boarded the Maersk Alabama about 380 miles off the Somali coast. After failing to take control of the ship, the pirates seized Phillips and held the captain on a small lifeboat for five days until Navy SEALs shot and killed three of the kidnappers and captured the fourth.

If you did not see the movie, rent it. Then you’ll know what I am talking about.

Three seals, each had a target.(vision) There was so much opportunity for them to take their eyes off their target and not accomplish their goal. Extreme distractions were present.

1. There was the rough sea, causing their ship and the life raft the captain was on to not only bounce up and down but also to change positions.
2. There was their targets ( the pirates) moving around, not staying in one place.
3. There was the distance between their boat and the raft.

Never once did they make excuses on why it couldn’t be done.
Never once did they think, in their mind, they couldn’t do this.

Then, when the opportunity was present, never losing focus, they pressed their triggers, each hitting their target, at the same time and accomplished their goal.

Your life and your business will encounter many distractions. That is not saying they will be bad distractions. Most of the time they will be legitimate in nature. But unless you know who you are and what you are attempting to achieve and how, distractions will throw you off course and you will begin to flounder.
Approach your vision, your goals and your life with the same intensity of focus and discipline as the Navy Seals accomplished theirs.

When I was coaching high performing business owners, one of my hardest task was to help keep them focused on their vision.
New ideas kept coming around, disguised as successful, that they wanted to try. Ideas that would move them from their vision. However, all they really were, proved to be distractions.

Unless ideas align with, expedite or improve your vision, ignore them.

Stay focused on what you are attempting to achieve!

In future sessions, we will talk about mini goals to help achieve your vision. However, right now I need you to understand the importance of focus.

Application:

1. In your own words, write down what focus means to you and your vision in life or business.

2. List all the things that are distracting you from staying focused to your vision:

3. How do you plan on eliminating these distractions?