Focus!

I remember a quote from a book that I once read: “The number one thing that keeps people from realizing their goals, maximizing their potential, and fulfilling their purpose is focus”.

Where you focus, the rest of your mind, emotions and abilities will follow it.

I look back on my life both personally and professionally and I can say that in almost every case, this has proven true.

My wife will tell you that once I set my mind on a goal, I am relentless. In other words, I have relentless execution towards reaching that goal. Sometimes (she might say all of the time) it borders on the obsessive.

I remember getting so sick and tired of being in debt in my twenties that I became laser-focused on getting out of debt. I read every book on the market, attended conferences and workshops, built a budget, starting using envelopes and cash, etc. At the age of 25 with no money in the bank and considerable debt, I built a short and long term plan to get us out of debt and to stay out of debt.

I decided that my focus needed to be on living debt and stress-free, not on our present financial hardship. I built imaginary buckets and started filling those-sometimes years in advance of the needed goal. I had buckets to pay off our cars, get braces for the kids, build college funds for them, buy new cars with cash, etc. I even started saving for my daughter’s wedding when she was two years of age! When she joyfully announced that she was engaged and getting married over twenty years later, I was able to give the two of them whatever I had saved in that ‘bucket’. And told them to keep whatever they didn’t spend. It worked out perfectly.

This didn’t happen overnight but was the result of being persistent and diligent and staying focused on the goal at hand (colleges, weddings, cars etc).

We sort of ate the elephant one bite at a time, for many months and many years.

It worked. I am now trying to help as many people as possible focus on the same. Establish goals, build plans to get there, be relentless in executing those plans and then celebrate success.

Being goal-oriented and being focused is the same at work. I learned the importance of setting daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual goals. I learned that the goals needed to be front, center and visible. Our teams needed to see these goals on bulletin boards, in regular emails, at meetings etc.

More importantly, we needed to measure ourselves to these goals (or commitments) regularly, almost obsessively.

What prevents people and teams from reaching success? In many cases it is noise or distractions. Distractions have to be eliminated to accomplish tasks. In almost every case, one has to recognize the distraction and reset the mind back on the goal.

My faith walk is like this. I attend church and hear an incredible sermon and I am ready to focus on helping others, etc. But almost immediately, or about the time it takes to drive home, my mind has refocused on chores around the house or even writing this leadership letter. On a regular basis, I have to stay focused on being the man that I should be and helping the next one in line.

The mind is an incredible thing. I have seen many times over, that what I dream can turn into reality.

The difference between dreams and recognizing them as an accomplished goal can only be shortened by focusing on it.

If you are a team leader and your team is under-performing, there are many reasons. Do you have the right people? Do the processes align with the goals? Do you have the right technology?

All of these are important components for success. But I have learned (the hard way) that I need to start with focus before going through the effort of changing people, or processes or systems. Most of the time, it all comes down to focus.

Peter McWilliams once wrote: “Our thoughts create our reality. Where we put our focus is the direction we tend to go”.

Before I end this letter, I want to highlight the power of faith as well. I learned that when I followed His plan for me it worked. The road wasn’t always easy. And I didn’t always recognize success on my timetable, but I always knew that God was there to encourage me, to assist me and to catch me. That’s what great leaders and Fathers do.

Thanks for reading this.

With a goal to “help the next one in line”, Glen Cavallo, a 30+ year healthcare executive has chosen to share the many lessons he has learned with others. Glen does this by serving as a coach/advisor to leaders at all levels of organizations, as a board member and as he presents inspirational speeches at regional, national, annual and awards meetings.