| Word Count: 1,323 Estimated Read Time: 5 ½ Min. |
Ask 50 people what is the single most important task or behavior a person can do that is required to be successful and you will likely get 50 different answers. Last week, we looked at one skill that many highly-successful people agree is key to success. That skill was communication. And then we considered what behaviors are essential to achieve success. Top on the list was consistency. Consistency is an essential building block for any kind of achievement. But those two are not enough. There are at least two additional ingredients needed to do well and get ahead. Third on the list is focus.
#3 – Focus is Critical for Success
It is no surprise that the most successful people in the world are highly focused. Focus is important for several reasons:
- Undiluted Effort – It’s easy to see that paying attention to many things can dilute attention. In order to make progress, concentration and intensity is needed.
- Quality – The more you try to do in parallel, the harder it is to maintain quality. Remember the old maxim that “you only get one chance to make a great first impression.” Good quality and service is hard, even with focus.
- Limited Personal Bandwidth – Time is the only truly finite resource. It can’t be bought, sold, or produced. A laser focus is necessary to make the most of that limited personal bandwidth.
That’s why the most successful people are not easily distracted and keep their attention on their goals. This habit ensures they are fully engaged in activities, get more done properly and deal with adverse life events better. Highly focused people are simply more mindful.
Take Mark Zuckerberg, for instance. Mr. Zuckerberg was a college student when he started Facebook. He dropped out of school — not just any school but Harvard University — to focus on building his fledgling startup business. He focused on the change his business idea would bring to the world. He wanted to create a social networking space with the vision of connecting the world and he was so inclined towards it that he even rejected big investment and partnership offers from large investment companies. He also rejected offers from Microsoft and AOL to pursue his dream. He knew what he wanted to build and being able to stay highly focused was key to shaping his business into a successful venture.
Many coaches preach that six months of super intense focus can put you five years ahead in your life. Focus is that important. Unlike bees, when people flutter from task to task, they do not achieve mastery. Those efforts don’t bear fruit. Thus, trying to focus on too many things is a formula for failure.
So how do we focus in a world that is so full of distractions? Here are a few tips:
- Write Goals and Keep them Front and Center.
Set very specific and clear goals. It’s not enough to jot them down in Notes on your phone. It needs to be written down or typed and then printed. Then keep those goals in all of the places that you can… on your mirror in the bathroom; on your refrigerator; on a white board in your office; on the visor in your car; etc. Many successful people have their goals posted on the wall in their workspace or on their computer desktop where they will see them all day every day. Some even have their most important goals written on a card they keep in their purse or wallet.
- Set up a Strict Schedule.
Create a strict schedule with daily tasks to complete in order to reach goals by a specific date. Successful people make it their top priority every day to complete those tasks before they do anything else. Instead of creating a full list of everything that needs to be done or doing only the easy tasks, focus only on the important tasks that move the goals forward. The rest – checking emails, answering letters, checking the news, or anything else — can wait. Creating a strict schedule can seem structured and rigid, but it is also liberating because it is clear what the most important tasks are. This eliminates so much of the distraction, uncertainty, and unnecessary busywork on which people waste time. This eliminates forgetting important tasks or rushing to do last-minute tasks.
- Ruthlessly Prioritize.
It might seem obvious that if you’re writing goals and creating a schedule, the tasks would be put in order of importance. But that is not as obvious as you think. Once goals are set for a finite period of time (like goals for the year), the next step is to figure out what big steps are needed to complete each goal within that year. Those need to then be broken down into months and then weeks and finally days.
- Commit to Making it Happen.
Once daily goals are set, it is important to commit to achieving them no matter what. There must be a mental commitment to do whatever it takes to get it done. A “whatever it takes” attitude means that sacrifices will need to be made.
- Clarify Your Purpose
Focused people are clear about what they were put on Earth to do. They use that sense of purpose to stay motivated and focused on their goals despite obstacles and distractions. That sense of purpose gives them joy and meaning, and points them relentlessly in the direction of making their dreams come true. Purpose makes it possible to stay focused.
- Act!
Get acutely action-driven. Goals without action are just dreams. So go, go, go! The results produced by acting on goals also helps drive focus.
Of course, focus, consistency and communication are ultimately doomed unless it is coupled with the final behavior of the success superfecta: Improvement!
#4 – Continuous Improvement is Essential for Success
Last but not least, the fourth behavior in the superfecta for success is continuous improvement. The key to success is to be constantly finding ways to do better and be better. That was Sam Walton’s approach with Walmart. Walton said that while schooling make us believe that getting ideas from others is wrong — and we should try re-invent the wheel all the time – that is bad advice. Instead, he said that ideas are everywhere and what matters is taking them and executing them in a different way… in a better way. Walton would tell his managers, “Go in and check our competition. Check everyone who is our competition. And don’t look for the bad. Look for the good. If you get one good idea, that’s one more than you went into the store with. Then we must try to improve the company by incorporating it and improving on it.”
It’s not enough to work hard, be consistent, and focus. There must always be a goal of continuous improvement in whatever you’re doing. When a person adopts an attitude of continuous improvement, there is always progress. When an organization adopts a culture of continuous improvement, it can be transformative. A culture of continuous improvement looks to improve all elements —processes, tools, products, services, etc. – continually. Sometimes those improvements are big. More often, the improvements are small. That doesn’t matter. What does matter is that improvement is frequent. When a person or organization excels at continuous improvement, they believe success comes from:
- improving “how” they do what they do,
- engaging everyone involved in sharing knowledge and generating improvement ideas, and
- exploring better ways to do things and respond to changes in the external environment.
By combining these four variables: communication, consistency, focus and improvement, the chance for success soars. Whether it is on a personal level, on a project, on a program or on an organization, these four factors can serve as the four cornerstones upon which to succeed. Try it. It’s like chicken soup. It can’t hurt, but it just might help.
Quote of the Week
The thing is, continuity of direction and continuous improvement in how you do things are absolutely consistent with each other. In fact, they’re mutually reinforcing. Michael Porter
© 2022, Keren Peters-Atkinson. All rights reserved.
The post A Superfecta for Success, Part 2 first appeared on Monday Mornings with Madison.