The Power of Focus

Many years ago, I coined the terms "Bull's-eye Thinking" andn"Bull's-eye Action" as a way to get the businesses andnindividuals I was consulting with, to focus only on the mostnimportant activities every day, instead of the "stuff" that showsnup on a daily basis.

Some of them were forever doing the least useful "stuff" in theirnbusiness and then complaining that they weren't getting thenresults they wanted.

It seemed that everything other than the highest prioritiesnalways had a way of distracting them.

Their mindset was, "I'll just get this out of the way and the

I'll focus on the big and important things".

It never happens. The "stuff" always comes up.

I used to teach a business-planning seminar to real estatenagents, and one of the requirements of the participants was theynhad to bring a spreadsheet of their activities for the prior 2nweeks.

Here's what we discovered based on a 50 hour workweek: nn-The agents who spent 10 hours a week with a potential customernwho would list or buy a home earned an average of $35-50k anyear. nn-The agents who spent 20 hours a week with a potential clientnearned an average of $75k a year. nn-The agents who spent 30 hours a week with a potential clientnearned over $250k a year.

And, get this... nn-The agents who spent over 40 hours a week in front of prospectsn averaged over $500k year!

So what's the point, you may be asking?

The point is this...

Look at your career or business, and you ask yourself thesenquestions...

How many hours a day/week am I actually doing what I am best at?
Or how many hours a day/week am I doing the activity that bringsnin the highest return on my time? How many hours a week am Ingetting caught up in "stuff"?

Most people get caught up in the "stuff" because they haven'tntaken the time to really think through and plan what they shouldnbe focused on, or to really understand where they make the mostnretu
on investment of time.

If you have the capacity to earn $50, $100 or even $1,000 pernhour, you should NEVER be doing any activity that pays you lessnunless you really want to.

Successful people do the highest paid activities first and thennthe "stuff". Or better yet, they hire someone else to do all then"stuff" that keeps them away from earning the highest income pernhour.

Stop letting the phone interrupt you. It's for your convenience,nnot others.

Stop letting other people's agenda interrupt you. Stop doingn"stuff" and start doing only the real things that get realnresults.

Plan your ideal day with the outcome you want and focus only onnthat, and don't deviate until what you want to accomplish isndone.

Leave 20% of your day as buffer time for stuff that actuallynmust be, and can only be, taken care of by you.

There's a story about Frank Sinatra that is worthy of repeating.
As it goes, one day while he was rehearsing one of the crew whonsets up the stage asked him to help move the piano. Frank justnlooked the guy and said "I don't get paid to move pianos!"

He clearly understood what he should do and what he shouldn't.

I have gotten myself into a habit of planning the outcome of mynday first thing and setting 3 - 4 major outcomes that I focus onneach day. Any deviation from that outcome must be caused by "mynemergency", not someone else's.

So with that said, do one thing right now without interruptionsnthat will earn you, your highest income this hour.

Then get in the habit of doing the things that consistently keepnyou at that level. The real key is to laser focus on the bignstuff that drives revenue.