No And Focus

"Anything you focus on grows."

- Steve Chandler

 

Do the One Thing, The Only Thing

From Steve Chandler: 

One slow thing at a time is a strong way to live. Being focused is a strong way to live.

Richard Sloma explains it in his powerful book "No-Nonsense Management: A General Manager's Primer". Pardon the cliché, but General Custer could have become one of our most famous military heroes if, somehow, he could have forced the Sioux nation to attack over the hill one at a time. Supremacy of the seas was guaranteed for the British when Lord Nelson maximized and exploited the technique of "crossing the 'T'" so as to allow all of his ships to fire broadside at each enemy ship as it appeared next in line.  Look at problems as adversaries. Summon all your forces and deal with them one at a time.

The Number #1 Reason to Focus  

From Seth Godin: 

You will care more about the things that aren't working yet, you'll push through the dip, you'll expend effort and expose yourself to fear.

When you have a lot of balls in the air, it's easy to just ignore the ones that make you uncomfortable or that might fall.

Success comes from doing the hard part. When the hard part is all you've got, you're more likely to do it.

And this is precisely why it's difficult to focus. Because focusing means acknowledging that you just signed up for the hard part.

From Steve Chandler:  

We don't have time to do everything we want to do today.  If you have any kind of success at all going on in your life, that will be your reality: more to do than time allows. Celebrate that. Then go warrior on your list and DELETE and/or DELEGATE as many items as you can.  

It's what you say NO to that creates your focus and pathway to an invented future. Not what you keep saying YES to all day in a vain attempt to please others and get them to like you and think you are accommodating.

My Input: 

To focus you have to say NO to other things and requests. You have to commit to yourself as though you were making a commitment to your largest customer. We cannot continue to say yes to everyone that requests something from us. That is what we do now. We want to please everyone, we want to be helpful, and we don't want to disappoint people. But think of it this way - saying no is uncomfortable for a few moments, saying yes to something that is not IMPORTANT will hound us for weeks or months as we stress out over fitting it in with the IMPORTANT things we need to get accomplished.

There is no such thing as time management - you can't manage time, it is finite, but you can manage what you do in the time you have and the quality and impact the things you do in that time.

So the answer is to start politely, and with empathy, say NO to non-essential, non- important requests. People will begin to respect you for it and maybe begin to emulate you.

Are you blocking time on your schedule to work and focus on important ROCKS/ACTIONS that will impact the company and your life and sticking to that hour of uninterrupted time?

You must treat those appointments with yourself as meetings with your most important customer and not let them slip. Don't change them because you get a request from anyone else, including your best customer. After all you wouldn't change a meeting with your best customer to accommodate another customer would you? Other times are open and you would suggest those instead.

First you have to know your clear purpose, your goals and the Rocks/Actions that will get your there. Then start saying NO politely, with empathy and focusing on the important.

Rick Wallace