04 Nov The Principle of Limited Focus
The Principle of Limited Focus has been a favorite among Lifebook Members, and can prove to be life transforming if applied correctly.
The principle of limited focus says that being selective and DOING LESS is the key to accomplishing MORE.
In other words, what we DON’T DO is every bit as important as what we choose to DO.
The ultimate goal of Lifebook Members is to become “12-category smart.” But 12 different life categories can be a lot to manage. Creating and maintaining high levels of health and fitness, and career & financial success, and balancing it with an extraordinary love life, a fulfilling social life, fantastic parenting, fulfilling emotions and spirituality… it’s quite a challenge. But it’s absolutely necessary if we want to live extraordinary lives.
The bottom line is this…
In order to become 12-category smart, we must learn to be EFFECTIVE.
This does not mean being BUSY.
Being busy and being effective are totally unrelated concepts. Most people stay extremely busy doing things that don’t contribute to their lives in any meaningful way. They work hard, but they don’t get anywhere. Being buried in meaningless busywork that doesn’t produce results is the number one reason people are stressed out and left feeling broke, frustrated, and stuck.
Being meaninglessly busy is just another form of laziness…
Lazy thinking and indiscriminate action. It doesn’t help us… it hurts us.
For instance, when it comes to parenting, we may spend a lot of ‘time’ with our kids, but if it’s all busy time (driving them to all their after school activities, feeling stressed out, yelling at them to be quiet and stop jumping around in the back seat, not being mentally present because your mind is on your work) well, that’s not effective parenting time. There’s no meaningful connection happening, no relationship growth occurring. We’re going through the motions and not being effective as a parent. We’re being lazy. It would be better to spend less time with our kids and make it count.
Quality is way more important than quantity, in every category of life.
Be selective with your time. Make it matter. Make it impactful. No matter what category we’re talking about, if you want to create a stellar life in every important area, you simply cannot waste your valuable time.
Being effective means defining what matters and producing meaningful results in those areas.
In order to do this, we must learn to use our time wisely, because there are not enough hours in the day to spin our wheels.
We must deploy our resources wisely against the highest value tasks that will really make a difference in our lives.
Every activity, every crisis, every opportunity competes for our time and our focus… and our FOCUS will determine our success or failure in life. So guard your focus diligently! Refuse to sacrifice the important to the unimportant. Determine what you’re NOT going to focus on andblock those things out of your life! Say no to the wrong things so you can say yes to the right things.
Being selective and DOING LESS is the path to productivity, effectiveness and SUCCESS in every category of our lives!