Laser Focus

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Laser Focus

In order to get serious results in your life, you need to be able to focus on what really matters. In order to understand what really matters to you, you need to explore and evaluate. When you become crystal clear about what matters, 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 call for you. It’s a crucial difference that makes the difference. You have to explore and evaluate a broad range of possibilities before you can conclude about what really works. You need to test things out in small ways before committing in a big way to what matters to you. Many think that 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. You get rid of all that is irrelevant and strenuous. Do you know what to discard? Are you really ready to get rid of what you should throw away? In other words, it’s just not enough to identify what activities and commitments do not work for you. You have to actively discard that. I have already discussed how to discard the clutter in your life so that you can have a well-designed, meaningful life and make vital contributions to what matters. You will do so 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 would 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 disperse 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’re 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?” The 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. When you focus, you do so with laser focus.

I’m guessing you’ve heard that 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 night becomes more and more compressed until it’s a narrow beam. Lasers concentrate light in a single direction, whereas lamps disperse light in all directions at once. Lamps light the room. Lasers emit light that cut through steel. They are both forms of light. They are 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. Now lasers are everywhere. They’re in our homes, offices, medical devices, manufacturing processes and military weaponry to name just a few.

How To Focus: If you put laser focus on what you want to achieve in life, you have a greater chance to be successful.

At this point, you can probably figure out what the term laser focus means. Your attention, the energy of your mind narrowly focused on one thing. Experts will tell you that it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill. I’m not suggesting you put 10,000 hours into something. I am suggesting that if you use laser focus on your de-cluttering tasks or whatever you 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 want to introduce you to an effective simple tool that Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor and philanthropist, uses.

Here’s how it goes. List the top 25 things you want to most accomplish in life or in your de-cluttering efforts. Take the top five and put them on a separate list. Don’t forget about the other twenty. They are still important, but I want you to ignore them for now. Don’t look at them all because it will distract you from your top five. Every time you think about them, it takes time and energy from what’s important. Can you see where I’m getting it? Think of your time and energy as light and your attention and the focus as a knob that concentrates that light into a narrow beam. When you spread your light on a wide area, it eliminates the room. It 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 business or house that I would love to get done. They scream for my attention all day long. You might allow that 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. It’s laser focus. At the end of the month, there were five things I’ve done. I move on to the next five from my list. For me, this process is empowering. When I have 25 things, nagging my mind, I get paralyzed and do nothing. Five things are manageable. One works like magic. I give it my full attention and get it done. I don’t have to deal with feeling guilty, overwhelmed and stressed about the rest of the list.

If your list contains 25 things you want to accomplish 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, and then on one per week. You accomplish what you need and leave the negative emotions behind. I always thought it would be cool to chill out in a beach resort for six months. I also like to write a great New York Times bestseller and go to study Tai-Chi intensely for one year and learn the weapon systems as well. I’m willing to let these things go to accomplishment my top five. One lucky listener who the post, 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 the unique mind-body, psychosomatic map of your life. You will get a detailed report and the 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 as soon as you’re done. The clearer you can be about how to organize your daily life to support your bigger vision, the more you’re stepping 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 and ask you questions at AskDrSun.com. Your life is a gift. Design it. Do what matters and join me as we get closer to designing the life of your dreams. I am Dr. Sun. Join me on the next episode on your Life By Design.

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