Keeping Focus
If you’ve lived on this planet for even a short time interacting with those who undertake greater than normal endeavors, you may have heard the phrase, “Keep your eye on the prize.” Most cultures seem to have a notion of focus leading to success. For some, it is closing a big sales deal. For others, it is making it on time to every soccer practice. Whatever your goal, focus gets you there.
Thing is...what is focus? It’s more than a direction. It’s more than just action. It is a clearly defined vision with a plan to get there. When you are truly focused, your vision is clear, and you plot your path; then your vision becomes an attainable goal. It also becomes something you can share. Others may come onboard to help you achieve the goal, too.
Vision and direction give you a heading. Action gets you on your course. And once on your course your clear goal gives you bearings as you navigate the path towards it. There will be twists and turns. That’s what happens to everyone. It is difficult to plan on every bump on the road, every twist and turn. However, a clear goal, a clear vision allows you to know where next to change your heading so that you are always moving forward and making progress towards it.
For example, let’s say you have a sales goal (a small goal compared to other larger ones, indeed...but this example is relatable to most businesses). Say the goal is an extra $12,000 revenue sales in two weeks. That goal may involve a sales team effort. Say you have three sales team members, including your lead sales manager. That’s $4,000 each sales person extra revenue. That’s a reasonable expectation in many industries. Then, you find out that your lead sales manager will no longer be available. (Let’s say that the sales manager has moved on to a better opportunity...as opposed to graver circumstances.) With the sales goal clearly defined at a certain value, the sales manager moving on simply modifies your path, it doesn’t diminish the sales goal. Instead of attaining the goal with three sales people, it will be achieved with two sales people. Hence, $6,000 per sales person. That looks like a 50% larger goal for each rep than originally expected, indeed. However, it is very doable. The clearly defined sales goal provided the answer to the changing circumstance of the sales manager moving on. Now, the answer of who replaces the sales manager is a business decision well outside the scope of this conversation. There may be a blog later about the subject of team dynamics and human resources for more information.
As things happen every day, you may become distracted from the goal sometimes. That is OK. Following the advice discussed here, your goal(s) is/are clearly defined and so is the path to get there. As things happen and get in your way; poke your head up, look around, get your bearings (that’s...look to see where you are), find your next heading (that’s...which way to point to get to your destination), and keep going! Without a clear vision / goal, the new heading is much more difficult to determine when you poke your head out of whatever it is that is clouding your vision “in the trenches.”
Keeping focus is a process that you undertake as you traverse the path towards your goal. You will find that you will be correcting your course of action many times. That’s fine. We may have a vision, plot a course, set sail on a particular heading, then (all of a sudden) discover that the current is flowing in a completely different direction than we originally thought. That’s OK. We have a clear vision. We have a clearly defined goal...a clear destination. We simply turn the rudder, adjust the sails, catch the wind just right, and we can turn our ship to sail in the direction of those goal(s). Otherwise, we may find ourselves adrift and at the mercy of the current as we exhaust our energy to simply sail against what we feel are winds against our progress. With a clear destination and a course laid out towards it, we will notice when the winds and the current are in our favor. And, we will know which way to turn, what to do with the sails, when things are less than favorable.
There are sailing techniques that allow you to bring your ship to shore even when the current and wind are blowing against your bow. But, the techniques only work when you are clear about your destination. Without clarity, there can be no safe return to shore...no safe arrival at your destination. Keeping focus is the process to maintain that clarity.
Be more. Do more.
--Raf
