Your Point Of Focus
Is It Helping You Or Hindering You?
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.
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.
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:
- Be very clear - What do you want? What is your core desire?
- Stop trying and start doing. When you try you don’t do – so just do it.
- Remain mindful and begin noticing when you are focusing on what you don't want.
- 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.
- Change your point of focus back to what you do want. I recommend: The Three Minute Power Pause
- 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
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