"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
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