ABC’s to Outstanding: The Benefits of Better Focus

Last week I introduced you to the ABC’s to Outstanding as we talked about controlling the “A” which is your attitude. Today, let’s focus on the “B.” It stands for Better Focus.

What’s the biggest risk of losing our focus? Wasting our time and our potential.

“One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular. ” - Tony Robbins

The fact is, we can’t multitask; our brains are simply not wired that way. Numerous studies have shown that when we are constantly interrupted, or are attempting to multitask, it will take up to 500% longer to achieve a specific task, and usually with less accuracy. But, if you focus with uninterrupted time, you can do things twice as fast. So, always create time in your day where you are 100% focused on your most important task. Why?

20% of what you do will result in 80% of your results, value, and accomplishments.

Don’t fall into the trap of always waiting for the deadline to focus, thinking that you can still produce top level work. You can’t - no one can. It’s only the best you can do under fear of failure, which is always significantly less than what you are capable of. It will give you average results, but that doesn’t lead to outstanding.

Recently, I attended a leadership conference where Drew Brees was the keynote speaker. He shared that when he made the decision to join the Saints rather than the Dolphins (or another franchise), he knew there was a lot of work to do in building that team into a championship team. He was able to help accomplish that by focusing on the smaller goals that led to the bigger goal of winning the Super Bowl. In other words, if you want to be a CPA, break it down into smaller goals and focus on them. If you accomplish these small goals, before you know it, you will find yourself where you want to be.

At HORNE, we have a millennial partner and several others in our partner development program who will make partner this year or next.  People ask me, “55% of our team is now made up of millennials, how did they get there so fast?” FOCUS. 

Better focus isn’t strictly for your career, you also need focus in your personal life. Spend some focused time on your health. This provides you the energy you need to be at your best, to be outstanding.  Your health provides the energy which helps you intellectually, emotionally and spiritually.

Focus on helping others – when you help others, it grows you too, and provides the opportunity for you to focus on new tasks. Always teach someone else what you are doing so it’s easier for you to focus on new tasks. Plus, your colleagues will love you for it.  

We all have the same amount of time each day; the key is to focus your energy on your highest priorities. Set smaller goals that will lead you to accomplish the main objective and reach your full potential. Remember if everything is important, then nothing is important. With better focus we can be unstoppable.

What will you focus on today, tomorrow, this week, to achieve your goals? To become outstanding?