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.
The Surprising Similarity Between Sports And Productivity
Here is one of my favorite comics:
Forget about the sports for a second.Have you ever heard this kind of talk in your work?Let me try to translate a bit into “office-speak.””Well, Bill, we want to make more sales but we keep calling and no one is getting back to us.”(The symptom is presented but there is no effort applied to figuring out if the problem is rooted in the quality of the leads, the script of the cold call, or how well the product solves the need of the customer.)Or how about . . .”Franks report says we need to execute more proposals this week. I guess we’d better keep calling and sending our emails.”(Here, the goal is vaguely defined--“more” isn’t a good goal, and working more hours is not a sustainable solution.)
There are two main mindset problems that led to these examples:
1. There is no investigation or identification of impediments (the things that might be slowing you down or preventing results).2. There is no analysis of things that are working or not working about the current approach.The fix is simple: get specific about what needs to be achieved and work backwards to how you’ll get there within the constraints of your team.
Simple but not easy.
Stop trying to make gears turn faster in a gearbox. It burns people out and doesn’t improve results.Set clear, reasonable goals to get small wins.
2 Minute Action:
Look over your “to-do” list for today.How many of the items are written in a way where you can definitely say “yes, this is done?”Is the task to make a call or is the task really to get the person on the phone to sign up?Is the task really to send a contract or is the task really to close the deal?Measure the end result.Be specific.You’re all set.Lets have a productive day.