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What's Your Secret Sauce?
Part 2 – Sharpen Your Focus
by Lee J. Colan, Ph.D.
(This report is an excerpt from Lee's next book "What's Your Secret Sauce?")
Throughout our lifetime, we grasp at the latest fads and the newest techniques, all with the hope of capturing the magic we see in others who are highly successful. We emulate strong role models, we study, we strive – all to find the real recipe for success.
Ultimately, scientific studies reveal this secret is not necessarily a matter of talent, intelligence, creativity or strategy. As the winds of change continue to stir our world, the recipe for success remains the same. The absolute highest-achieving people and teams, whether they are leaders of themselves or others, continually mix three ingredients into their secret sauce. They:
Although these three ingredients form a timeless recipe for success, real success is found in how each of us mixes up these ingredients to create our own secret sauce. For now, let's focus on Focus.
Think of the last time you went to the circus. Remember the lion tamer? Every courageous lion tamer uses three tools to control his fierce companions prowling around the cage: a whip, a stool and a handful of tasty snacks. But, which of these tools is most valuable to the tamer?
When the lion tamer lifts the stool to face his snarling friends, the lions see the four stool legs and cannot focus on a particular leg. As a result, they stand frozen. Unfortunately, the same can happen to us when we try to focus on too many things – we freeze or we might focus on the wrong things. Either option will take the roar out of our success.
Here are some secret sauce ingredients from the most highly successful people (click here to share your secret sauce). They focus their mind and their time.
Focus Your Mind
What you think today is what you achieve tomorrow. Paint a vivid mental picture of your goal onto the walls of your mind. Keep this image in your mind’s eye and carry it wherever you go to keep you focused on your goal.
We draw into our lives what we constantly think about – good or bad. If you are always thinking about why you can’t seem to get a break, when the next shoe will drop in your relationship, or why you don’t get as much recognition as your colleague, you are programming your mind (and those around you) to make those thoughts your reality. If you find yourself having a negative thought, say, “STOP!” out loud and replace it with a positive thought. Saying “STOP!” out loud is important so that you can hear yourself controlling your own thinking.
The mind is the ultimate personal computer. Sometimes we forget to update our mental virus protection programs, allowing negative thoughts to invade our mind without realizing it. So, the old adage “Garbage in, garbage out" becomes "Garbage in, garbage stays." We must remember to scan for and delete negative mental input regularly. Whatever your mind hears from others, and especially from you, it records and stores. The mind doesn't discriminate between what’s good and what’s harmful – it collects all input. Control your inputs by monitoring what you watch on television, finishing your daily newspaper or online reading with an inspiring story and spending time with people who have positive outlooks.
Worry wrecks our focus. We all worry … the trick is to minimize the time between your first worried thought and your first action to attack it. Remember, much of our worry is based on concerns in our minds, not reality. Mark Twain once said, “I’ve suffered a great many catastrophes in my life. Most of them never happened.”
An effective response to worry is to Breath! A little anxiety can help us focus and perform at peak levels, but too much anxiety sends us down the back side of the performance slope. Oxygen is a key element for our performance and endurance. Before you go into a tough discussion, big presentation or strained negotiation, take five deep breaths to increase oxygen intake and exhale to release your butterflies. Focus on your desired outcome as you breathe.
When was the last time you saw a yellow car? You might see a yellow car once a day or so. Now, for the next week, check out how many yellow cars you see. Since you’ve now been alerted to yellow cars, you will probably observe many more of them than you had previously. Is it because there are more yellow cars on the street? Of course not. You just sharpened your alertness. When we become aware of something – a new goal, a new way of doing things, an opportunity – we tend to see more of that thing.
I experienced the "yellow car phenomenon" first-hand, when my lovely wife was pregnant with our first child. Previously, I was your typical, young married guy – focused on career and travel. Once my wife was pregnant I looked around and thought to myself, "My goodness, there MUST be something in the Dallas water system. Practically everyone is pregnant!" Well, that was not the case, but I was more aware of the state of pregnancy. My thoughts helped me "see" more of what I was thinking.
Focus on “yellow cars” – those people, opportunities and experiences around you that create a pathway to success.
Focus Your Time
The most important thing in life is to decide what is most important. Determine one goal, the “one thing” that is most important to you. Never let anything less important take priority over it. To help identify your “one thing,” ask yourself two questions:
What can I be the very best at? What am I absolutely passionate about?
The place where your two answers intersect will help you focus in on your “one thing.” Measure every thought, every word and every action against your goal. Ask yourself, “Is it obvious to others what my ‘one thing’ is?”
Your time, energy and money are precious resources – if you spend them in one area, you cannot spend them in another area. Saying “Yes” to one thing means saying “No” to something else. Say “No” to anything that prevents you from focusing on what’s most important to you.
Tame your technology … or it will become your master. In today’s highly connected world, we have to define boundaries around our time. Just because our Blackberry or cell phone notifies us of a new message doesn’t mean we have to shift our focus to attend to it. Constant accessibility to others blurs our focus, so create focused time to respond to voice and e-mail messages.
There you have it! A few ingredients to help you sharpen your focus and mix your own secret sauce.
Next, time we'll add some spice and discuss practical ways to build your competence.
No doubt, you have mixed your experiences, knowledge and passions to create your own secret sauce... and unique successes. So click here to share your secret sauce.
Who knows, it might end up in my next book, "What's Your Secret Sauce?"
I can't wait to read about it!
Copyright © 2007 by Lee J. Colan
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