Read This If You Need To Focus
When I was a kid, I was lucky enough to have a dad who could teach me some core, basic life lessons.
I learned to quick-touch a soccer ball between my feet, dribble a basketball, and swing a bat.
But Chris, these are all sports moves, not life lessons.
You're right, and this is what I thought for a long time, too.
I remember swinging the bat, looking to the imaginary outfield, waiting to feel the connection with the ball.
Whiff.
I would hit nothing but air.
Then another pitch would come and I would look again, into the imaginary bleachers of imaginary screaming fans, brace for a huge impact, and . . .
Whiff.
Nothing.
Then my dad would deliver the lesson.
"Keep your eye on the ball."
What? Eye on the ball? How will that have anything to do with my success?
It didn't matter. He was my dad and knew everything.
The next pitch was coming and I stared at the ball.
Nothing mattered but that small, white ball.
WHACK.
It was gone.
It happened so fast that I barely caught a glimpse of the ball hurling over the neighbor's fence.
My dad smiled. That was an easy one.
Here's the core, transferrable lesson that I didn't realize I was learning:
When you're shooting for the stars, it's easy to get caught up in the glamour of the crowd or the magnificence of the feat. It's easy to forget the difficult steps of what you will actually need to take to get there.
You can look at the bleachers when you step up to the plate, but when it's time to swing, you had better keep your focus on the task at hand.
If you don't, you'll "whiff" every time.
And what's worse? You'll never learn to hit a slow, underhand pitch!
It's that first step that will get you the muscle memory and focus needed to hit a fastball later in life.
2 Minute Action
Take 1 minute and think about your long term goal "the bleachers." You can even write this goal down right now.
Then take the next minute and create your short term goal, "hitting the ball."
Keep in mind here that the trick is to think long term and act short term.
Self-evolution
If we're not learning about ourselves, analyzing our results, and rebuilding . . . then we are bound to make the same mistakes, relive the same embarrassments, and date the same kind of people. Learning is everything.When the light bulb goes off, we feel alive! When we discover something new, we are inspired to keep searching. When we educate ourselves, we practice a healthy habit of incremental improvement.For how important education is, I don't talk about it enough. I often rant on productivity and output, urging others to shoulder their biggest ambitions and push forward without conceding. What I've offered to you so far has been 1) a thought about purpose, direction, priority, or ambition, immediately followed by a 2) CTA or "Call To Action" for that thought. Although this seems like a good format, it could be more effective.
This is the ugly part of taking action.
When you've worked hard to produce something and you realize that your baby is ugly. The only logical thing to do, then, is to test improvements.I think maturity is the ability to experience this realization and still choosing to move forward, in a new direction, knowing that the pain of failure in the short term is requisite for the longevity of a healthy legacy. If we're not living for legacy, then for what?Did you know that the average American spends 5 hours per day watching TV? (citation) This is staggering. Now, multiply that by a few million people. We could build cities, multiple cures for cancer, affordable housing systems, renewable energy, ad infinitum. All of that time watching TV, selfishly idling, indulging in voyeurism and fantasy. The same goes for Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat (which are the modern day CBS, NBC, and ABC). All of those micro-moments accumulate!Not to mention that we are what we eat, read, watch, and do. Garbage in, garbage out. We literally use the cells that we consume to build our new self. Think about that for a minute.
What is your mission in life?
How are moving toward it? What do you think you need to get there?It turns out, that giant, hairy, audacious goals are often made up of lots of small, manageable, actionable tasks. Do 10 pushups every day can turn into 20, 40, 75, 100.1% compounding interest doubles every 72 days, not every 100 days.All of this to say: the blog is going to start looking a little different. The format will evolve, my words will change, and the message may emphasize things other than motivation--and that's okay. If you only signed up for a motivational tip, this probably isn't the best place for you.If you signed up because you wanted to be the change, evolve yourself, and collect on the compounding interest of your life's efforts to develop, well, this is probably a great place to start. Hope you learned something new from this post.
2 Minute Action
What's a "Garbage in" input that you are going to quit or reduce today? Doesn't have to be a lifetime commitment. Just focus on today.Let me know in the comments.