Focus and Self MotivationWritten by Dave Gannaway 
A common error that can disrupt focus and self motivation is to divide your attention. Trying to concentrate fully on more than one objective is like defusing a laser, all you achieve is a bright light! Notice that when there is so much going on in your life finding focus on any one thing is difficult. It drains your energy and blurs the goal. Lack of focus can often destroy self motivation. Ever have that feeling of having so much to do and not knowing where to start? Spreading your self too thin as the result of too many activities, or trying to please too many masters, can also cause a lack of creativity and productivity.
Losing self motivation creates the problem of rediscovering your focus. It saps your energy causing you to keep starting over again. Creating more than one specific goal at a time can be counter productive, causing our focus and attention to vacillate from one thing to another. Dividing your energy is to water down your potential and effectiveness. Imagine taking a glass and focusing the suns rays on a paper. In just a few moments the paper will begin to burn so intense is the heat. Keep moving the glass from one point to another and it does not get hot enough to burn. It only gets warm.
Where there are several important tasks demanding your attention, we must prioritize. Learning to prioritize can, in some cases, be a discipline and yet a very productive tool to cultivate. It teaches you how to see the whole picture clearly and where to place your focus to best effect. In business situations, it teaches us to delegate, another important energy saving habit.
Like many young people, I often had two jobs. As a boat builder this kept me very busy. I recall one yacht owner asking me to undertake some extensive work on his boat. I was naturally delighted but he said there was one proviso. That, his was the only job I had. I was a little puzzled by his strange request until he explained that he wanted all the focus of my attention. “If you are working more than one job, I will only get a small part of your attention, and that is not enough!” For me that was a very important lesson of focus and self motivation.
Working more than one job may work out okay if you are flipping burgers or serving coffee, but not when it demands creative skills and your attention. Many years later when my wife and I had retail stores, our golden rule of focus and self motivation for our check-out staff was, ‘the customer is king and must have your total attention.’ The customer is the most important person in your life whist you are serving them! Recall being served by an assistant who is holding a conversation with another person over your head. How irritating and rude is that?
Focus on one goal. Generate your self motivation, crank it up until you are so empowered you can’t wait to get up and at ‘em! This intensity and focus contains an unstoppable motivation that will quickly generate the conclusions you desire. A focused jet of water can cut through steel and cut away rocks in quarries, imagine the motivated focused jet of water transformed into a spray. The power would be dispersed and its cutting power denied.
You can’t divide your energy and motivation up into segments it just doesn’t work like that. Hit your main goal with all you’ve got, achieve that, and then move on to another. For focus and self motivation, be like the rhinoceros, focus on your goal, put your head down and charge!
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