Laser Focus

So in order to get serious results in your life, you need to be able to focus on what really matters. So in order to understand what really matters to you, you need to explore and evaluate. When you become crystal clear about what matters do so you do so because you have the benefit of hindsight, experience, and evidence that something really works for you.

To explore all that is relevant and possible, you need a base from which you can narrow down what is clearly the core for you, the crucial “difference” that makes the difference.

You have to explore and evaluate a broad range of possibilities in depth before you can conclude about what really works. So you need to test things out in small ways before committing in a big way to what matters to you.

Dedicated “Life Designers” spend significant chunks of time exploring, questioning, arguing and thinking. The purpose of the exploration is to hone in on what truly matters. Then you get rid of all that is irrelevant and extraneous.

Do you know what to discard? However, are you really ready to get rid of what you should “throw away”?

In other words, it is not enough to identify what activities and commitments do not work for you. You have to actively discard them. I have already discussed how you discard the “clutter” in your life so that you can have a well-designed and meaningful life and make vital contributions in what really matters.

You will also do it in such a way that you become more respected, acknowledged, and valued in your home, workplace, community, and society at large.

Getting rid of things and projects in your life and business will not be easy. There will be that nagging fear that you gave away something that you will desperately need later on in your life

This feeling is perfectly normal. Research has shown that when we don’t own something we value it less. Those that we own we assign a higher value to and so find it harder to dispose of.

The critical question when deciding what to de-clutter is, “If I did not have this opportunity, what would I be prepared to sacrifice to get access to it?”

However, remember that in the Life Design model, whenever you don’t say “No” to something, you are agreeing by default.

It’s easier to become clear by asking yourself, “Instead of saying ‘Yes’ to every opportunity and activity, what would I say ‘No’ to?”

This question will clear the cobwebs and give you great clarity for you and your team. It is the core questions that will allow you to make breakthroughs in your life, your career, and your business.

This will allow you to focus on the difference that makes the difference. So when you focus, you do so with a laser focus. I’m guessing you’ve heard the term laser focus. Let me explain how this term evolved.

Think of a lamp in your home. Lamps have a soft glow and spread light evenly throughout the room they occupy. Now suppose your lamp has a knob you can twist that concentrates the light on one space on the wall. As you turn the knob, the light becomes more and more focused until it’s a narrow beam.

Lasers concentrate light in a single direction, whereas lamps disperse light in all directions at once. Lamps light a room. Lasers emit light that can cut through steel. They’re both forms of light. They’re both forms of wave energy. The big difference is that one is far more concentrated, and therefore far more powerful, than the other.

James Bond was almost chopped in half by a laser beam in the 1964 film Goldfinger. Back then, lasers were cutting-edge technology (pun intended). Today, lasers are everywhere. They’re in our homes, offices, medical devices, manufacturing process, and military weaponry, to name just a few.

At this point you can probably figure what the term laser focus means: your attention – the energy of your mind – is narrowly focused on one thing.

Experts will tell you it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master a skill. I’m not suggesting you put 10,000 hours into something, but I am suggesting that if you use laser focus on your decluttering tasks or whatever you really want to achieve in life, you stand a greater chance of success.

For those of you who have long lists of things you want to get done, I’m going to introduce you to an effective, simple tool that Warren Buffet, the billionaire investor and philanthropist uses.

Here’s how it goes:

List the top twenty-five things you most want to accomplish in life or in your de-cluttering efforts. Then take the top five and put them on a separate list. Don’t forget about the other twenty. They’re still there. They’re still important, but I want you to ignore them for now. Don’t look at them at all, because they’ll distract you from your top five, and every time you think about them, it takes time and energy from what’s really important.

Can you see what I’m getting at? Think of your time and energy as light, and your attention and focus as a knob that concentrates that light into a narrow beam. When you spread your light over a wide area, it illuminates the room, but doesn’t do much of anything else. When you turn the knob and focus that light, you can cut through steel.

I can easily list 25 projects around my house I’d love to get done. They scream for my attention all day long. If I allow my energy to spread across all of them, nothing much happens.

When I concentrate that energy, I can get things done.

I like to take Warren Buffet’s technique one step further. From my top five, I focus on one task each week. That’s it. Nothing else. Laser focus. At the end of a month, those five things are done.

Then I move to the next five on my list.

For me, this process is empowering. When I have twenty-five things nagging my mind, I get paralyzed and do nothing. Five things are manageable. One works like magic. I give it my full attention, I get it done, and I don’t have to deal with feeling guilty, overwhelmed, or stressed about the rest of the list.

If your list contains the twenty-five things you want to accomplish most in life, you may not get to all of them, which can lead to feelings of guilt and frustration. Try getting laser-focused on the top five, then on one per week.

You’ll accomplish what you need, and leave the negative emotions behind.

I’ve always thought it would be cool to chill out at a beach resort for six months.

I’d also like write the next great New York Times best-seller, and go and study Tai Chi intensely for one year and learn the weapon systems as well.

But I’m willing to let these things go to accomplish my top five.

One lucky listener that posts a review on iTunes will win a private confidential consultation and coaching with me on discovering your soul’s purpose. I will lead you on a personal journey to discover your unique mind-body psychosomatic map of your life. You will get a detailed report and a personal 45 minute consultation with me that is worth thousands.

On this podcast I’m going to help you design a life that works. So you are able to say yes to the things that matter and eliminate everything else that slows you down. The more clear you can be about how to organise your daily life to support your bigger vision, the more you’ll step into your true potential, stay on track and accomplish all that you want and deserve. Are you ready to make that happen?

Feel free to reach out to me to ask your questions at AskDrSun.com. Your life is a gift. Design it. Do what matters and join me each week as we get closer to designing the life of your dreams. I am Dr Sun. Join me next week on Your Life by Design.