I received an email from a fellow who wanted some techniques on maintaining focus, especially the conscious focus that Haanel describes in Week Fourteen in The Master Key System.
26. But the thought must be clear cut, steady, fixed, definite, unchangeable; you cannot take one step forward and two steps backward, neither can you spend twenty or thirty years of your life building up negative conditions as the result of negative thoughts, and then expect to see them all melt away as the result of fifteen or twenty minutes of right thinking.
I have three ways or techniques you can use to maintain focus. They are pretty self-evident, but I hope that when you read them here, you’ll see them in a different light.
More importantly, I hope that you will put these techniques into practice.
(1) Practice, man. Practice!
You must be consciously aware of your mental state at all times. Take stock of why you’re feeling the way you are when/if you get down.
Get to the root of things.
It takes serious practice to do that.
The Master Key System is not a pop psych book. It’s a serious philosophy that demands some serious effort. There are no shortcuts in this. Practice is the key way to achieve this success.
(2) Get a better goal (or why)!
If you tend to lose focus, then maybe your goal isn’t a true goal–a goal that you really want. Use The Master Key Workbookto hone your goals so that they are what you really want. It’s funny how when you really want something, many distractions just fade away.
Think of things this way: If you were submerged under water and held there, you would struggle with all your might to get to the surface so that you could breath again.
That’s a goal! That impels you to keep reaching!
That’s focus: when you can think of nothing else but that which you desire.
As long as you truly desire the goals you set for yourself–and you have compelling reasons why you want them–then the focus you need will be easy to attain–and maintain.
(3) Live up to it!
I’ve found that many folks don’t live up to anything. They don’t have a compelling reason to want to be better.
Think of any bachelor that you know. Their house (or apartment) is a mess, they’re slovenly, unkempt, unshaven. I think you get the picture.
Once they meet a girl they want to impress, though … Wow! Don’t they do a complete 180?
They clean themselves up, get their act together, and try to win the girl.
Why?
They’ve found something they want to live up to.
A leader wants to be the best leader so that he/she can gain the respect of their group. A father wants to live up to being a hero in his son’s eyes. A mother will do what she can to retain custody of her children so that they can stay together as a family.
That is what living up to something means.
To maintain a focus, find or realize all the ways you can live up to things–and then become that person. Maintaining that image will help you to maintain that focus.
I hope that this helps and that it provides a few insights to keeping yourself on track. Focus is something with which most people struggle. As I like to say, all too often life interruptus rears its ugly head.
Life interruptus … That destroyer of time and waster of energy.
Ask yourself how much of your time is interrupted by phone calls, people stopping by, or even yourself getting involved in one distraction or another. If you make your plan and then stick to it, then you are increasing the chances of maintaining your desired focus and therefore achieving your goals.
David Rockefeller would maintain his schedule no matter what. If he scheduled that a meeting would last for one hour, then it would last for one hour. When that hour was up, the meeting was over.
Eliminating life interruptus is often times difficult to do, but it must be done. If you constantly find yourself depleting your energy on useless, unfocused tasks and endeavors, then you will find yourself adrift, not getting to where you want to be.
Use these techniques to maintain your focus. When it all comes down to it, your life becomes what you focus on. Focus on the good things and the good things will come to you.
Anthony R. Michalski/Master Key Coaching |