Power Acronym 23: F.O.C.U.S.
What's your focus?
I've written and rewritten F.O.C.U.S. multiple times.
It’s hard to think about the word focus without considering the wisdom Cal Newport shares in his book, Deep Work which informs a few of the ideas I share below.
How would you write your F.O.C.U.S. Power Acronym?
Share yours as a comment!
Here's my current thinking:
Fundamentals
The 300-day Heroic Coach program I completed in March of 2022 taught me that there are a few fundamental things we should be aware of and be optimizing all the time to ensure we show up as our best for the other roles and goals we have in life. Here they are: Eating, Moving, Sleeping, Breathing, Focusing, Celebrating and Prospering.
What Fundamental do you have dialed in? Which could use some work?
Making a game of getting even +1 better at one of these could change your life.
Focus on the fundamentals!
Order
There’s something extremely satisfying about having a clean house and an organized desk. Even closing out hundreds of browser tabs gives me a reason to release a deep sigh of relief. When there’s order in the environment, there’s order in the mind.
That’s not to say the only way to be focused is to have white glove cleanliness.
Oftentimes the very reason my desk is disheveled or the house needs attention is because I’m focused on other priorities. Like the Yin and Yang, Order and Chaos are linked and must be balanced.
As Jordan Peterson says in 12 Rules for Life:
“Order is not enough. You can’t just be stable, and secure and unchanging, because there are still vital and important new things to be learned. Nonetheless, chaos can be too much. You can’t long tolerate being swamped and overwhelmed beyond your capacity to cope while you are learning what you still need to know. Thus, you need to place one foot in what you have mastered and understood and the other in what you are currently exploring and mastering. Then you have positioned yourself where the terror of existence is under control and you are secure, but where you are also alert and engaged. That is where there is something new to master and some way that you can be improved. That is where meaning is found.”
Focus on striking the right balance between the forces that compete for our attention and cultivate the self-control necessary to do what is truly important, not just what feels good at the time.
Consistency
“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step” - Lao Tzu
I’m the most consistent when I identify the high-leverage actions that lead to a big outcome I’m looking to get.
Creative sprints work well for me. 33 days of writing, 101 days of writing or videos, now 366 days in a row, all en route to publishing a book.
I do 51 push-ups (most days) as a minimum movement requirement.
But I don’t run the same days every week or the same amount of miles.
I’m working on being more consistent with my team regarding monthly 1 on 1’s and formal training. Sometimes I let other things take priority over these critical fundamentals.
Focus and Consistency are deeply linked because our capacity to be consistent (doing something daily, or the same way every time) depends on our focus. And focus requires us to say “no” with conviction.
No to the other opportunities, the other good ideas, the other opinions, the comfort or discomfort.
Much more to explore that will have to wait for another time.
Here’s one more quote on the idea of Consistency to end on:
“If it’s worth doing it’s worth doing every day.” - Grant Cardone
Understanding
“Monitor and adjust.”
That’s what an education administrator and influential church member told me during my experience as a youth director for a small church.
I was regularly seeking guidance from church members on how to improve the youth program and not let fear overtake me as a very young and new leader.
It’s super simple advice. So simple it can be dismissed as though we do this as easily as we breathe. Not true.
It’s far easier to monitor and complain. Monitor and blame. Monitor and gossip.
The adjustment is the magic, but it’s also the work. And sometimes the simple things are the most difficult.
Instead of complaining - do something!
Instead of blaming - take responsibility!
Instead of gossiping - speak TO the problem, not ABOUT it.
It’s one thing to understand the problem. The real leaders help others understand what must be done next.
Solution
Sure, we can walk and chew gum.
There are things we can do at the same time but I can’t write this page and another at the same time.
I can’t pay full attention to the game on the TV or the lyrics on the song and the work I’m doing.
This is partly why I get irritated when I go to a business and the employees wear headphones while working.
If you’re sort of doing your job and sort of listening to a podcast, you’re not doing the best at either and you’re not going to go out of your way to engage with me and provide the extra that exists in extraordinary.
The result you are looking for is on the other side of an obsessive focus.
Where’s your F.O.C.U.S.?
What is one thing you could stop doing that would improve your focus?
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