Your Point Of Focus

Is It Helping You Or Hindering You?


Your Point Of Focus. Is It Helping You Or Hindering You? Graphic of a target.

Your point of focus is the central point of your attention. It is the second most important factor that will determine whether or not you achieve your objectives.

The first and and most basic key to accomplishing any success in life, is knowing what you want. This core desire will fuel your efforts to achieve that success, but without focus those efforts can be wasted.


It’s A Binary Choice

Your point of focus is a binary choice and the result of that choice is critical to your happiness, your inner peace, and your ability to create what you want in life.

You can either focus on what you want and what you want to move toward.

Or, you can focus on what you don't want, what you want to avoid, what you are afraid of, what you are worried about, and what you want to move away from.

The most resourceful approach is to live life as though you expect to reap the results of your thoughts immediately.


Why?

Because we live in an energetic universe and it's not neutral, it is a participative universe.

The dominant thoughts that you have, and especially the underlying energetic states associated with those thoughts, are influencing your life.

The dominant energetic states associated with your primary point of focus are either helping you or hindering you.



    Over time, what you focus your mind on becomes your reality.

    The most resourceful approach is to live life as though you expect to reap the results of your thoughts, and associated energetic states, immediately.








Is Your Unconscious Point Of Focus On What You Don’t Want?

The big problem for many of us is that we are not conscious of what we are focusing on.

To unconsciously focus on what you don't want demonstrates your immunity to change and is the root cause of all your resistance to what it is that you say you do want.

How do you know you’re unconsciously focusing on what you don’t want?


Here's how you can tell your true point of focus:

(1) How you are feeling

Anytime you have a bad feeling you are most likely unconsciously focusing on what you don’t want and what you are trying to avoid.

(2) Your results

Any time an area of your life isn't working, it's quite possibly because you're focusing on what you don't want in that area.


Why would you have a negative point of focus?

The root cause of focusing on what you don't want is past [often early life] bad experiences and trauma. So when you have a present day significant negative emotional experience, you begin to think: "There's danger out there, and I have to avoid it."

To avoid it, though, you have to focus on it, and when you do that, two things happen: first, you feel bad, and second, you get it.

Then you focus on it again… and create a vicious cycle of defeat "chasing your tail" to make up for the impacts of the unintentional miss-creations of your negative energy.

One good solution to this issue is to adopt a mindful approach to life as an effective way of becoming aware of your habitual (negative) thought patterns and emotional states and weakening their hold on you to the point that you no longer self identify with these thoughts and states.



    The practice of mindfulness will help you stop focusing unconsciously and automatically, and empower you to intentionally shift your point of focus onto what you do want.







Personal experiences

I lacked a point of focus in the early years of my business career as a professional salesman. I started out selling capital goods such as printing equipment and photocopiers, then moved to selling services in the computer industry and then I joined Dun & Bradstreet selling information based direct marketing services (this was in the pre-digital era).

In my first 2 jobs I always managed to maintain a position in the top 20% of performers, but when I got to Dun & Bradstreet I wanted to be top salesman.

I got off to a good start and hit my targets but I wasn’t breaking any records. Then in the seventh month I missed a target and was very despondent.

My sales manager took me aside and gave me a piece of advice that has stayed with me for the past 40 years:

“Stephen” he said, “you’re a good salesman and one of your strongest qualities is your energy and enthusiasm, but you’re all over the place, you lack a point of focus. To become the great salesman that I believe you can be, you need to establish a point of focus your on those core activities that will generate the big sales.”

Fast forward 12 months, I applied his advice and I was the top salesman. I shattered all previous records by bringing in the single biggest order the division had ever seen, I exceeded my target by 250% and earned a lot of money.

For a long time that was as good as it got because I spent many of the following years of my life not living to my full potential because of fear.

My unconscious point of focus was primarily fear of failure, but also fear of what others may think, fear that I was not good enough, and fear of "not being ready yet".







6 Key Pointers To Help Your Point Of Focus Remain On What You Do Want

Here are 6 key things that I have learned and practice to help stay focused on what I do want:

  1. Be very clear - What do you want? What is your core desire?
  2. Stop trying and start doing. When you try you don’t do – so just do it.
  3. Remain mindful and begin noticing when you are focusing on what you don't want.
  4. Be aware that your resistance will try to pull your mind back to what you don't want. If it does, be mindful and sit with it and accept it.
  5. Change your point of focus back to what you do want. I recommend: The Three Minute Power Pause
  6. Keep short accounts with yourself and when needed, correct your thoughts in the moment they occur.







Next Article:

How To Overcome Fear And Perform Powerfully


Return from "Your Point Of Focus" to:

Walking The Talk

Contact me



English Chinese (Traditional) Russian French German Italian Spanish Vietnamese




If you have found this site helpful and would like to support our work


LATEST ARTICLES

  1. Let Stillness Speak - Living Within A Complex System

    To let stlllness speak is to learn it's first major lesson: you are not your thoughts. To let stillness speak is about stepping back from the constant chatter of your mind and allowing a deeper, quiet…

    Read More

  2. Understanding Complex Systems Thinking - It's Not Complicated

    Understanding, and being able to work with, complexity is an important thinking skill. We are all working with complex systems, and we do so every day. The biggest one is life itself. We automaticall…

    Read More

  3. Stay On The Bus - When To Keep On Going

    The Helsinki Bus Station Theory Have you ever started a new project, initiative or role with a big vision and a determination to make a difference? Initially you were full of enthusiasm and highly mo…

    Read More

  4. Zen Thoughts Email Series

    Conversations With A Friend Zen Thoughts is an email series of 50 short messages spread over 3 months. The messages are written in the style of a conversation with a friend who is going through a toug…

    Read More

  5. How to Get What You Value by Changing What You Measure

    Give Up Control & Gain Influence To Get What You Want The metrics we choose to focus on can significantly shape our outcomes, sometimes in ways we don't intend. The challenge is to make sure that you…

    Read More

  6. How to Become A Master At Overcoming Hard Moments

    "The best in the world are not the best because they win every point. It's because they lose again and again and have learned how to deal with it." This quote from Roger Federer has got a lot of cover…

    Read More

  7. Drop The Story - Deal With Your Demons and Transform Your Experience

    Are you living your life from the stories you tell yourself? Learning how to drop the story and deal with that voice in your head can be a game changer. When you can do this you will have a powerful t…

    Read More

  8. Standing In The Gap Between No Longer And Not Yet

    Standing In The Gap In Conditions Of Imposed Change. This is about imposed change and surviving a dire and desperate situation where you are stuck in a difficult or seemingly impossible set of circums…

    Read More

  9. Preparing The Ground - For Things You Can Not See

    We plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the ground. The phrase "preparing the ground" is a metaphor for making the necessary preparations to create the favourable conditions for something to…

    Read More

  10. Easing The Weight Of Expectation

    Don’t you often feel like you are carrying the weight of the world on your back? Our start point is understanding that the ego has a very clear idea of how things ought to be, and its intention and ex…

    Read More

  11. Coram Deo - Living In Consciousness

    In you there is a dimension of consciousness far deeper than thought. It is the very essence of who you are. Coram Deo is about living in consciousness. It is a Latin phrase which literally means “to…

    Read More

  12. The Power Of Patience - Why You Need The World's Toughest Quality

    Nothing in the world can take the place of patience. Patience and persistence are omnipotent. In everyday life, patience is often overshadowed by the desire for immediate results. We live in an era of…

    Read More

  13. Demonizing The Other and Personal Acts Of Compassion

    What Does Demonizing The Other Mean? Demonizing the other refers to the act of portraying a group of people or an individual as inherently evil, threatening, or inferior. It often serves to justify di…

    Read More

  14. Why You Should Embrace Anomalies - The Incredible Value Of Disconfirming Evidence

    Is Your Desire To Be Right Greater Than Your Desire To Have Been Right? An anomaly is a deviation from what is expected or commonly regarded as the norm. It often appears as an unexpected observation…

    Read More

  15. Amazing Grace - The Majesty And The Mercy of Freedom From Your Pain

    "I once was lost, but now I am found, was blind, but now I see." The hymn and popular song "Amazing Grace" was written 250 years ago by John Newton, a former slave trader who in 1748 nearly died in a…

    Read More




3 Keys Solutions



The Balanced Toolkit