Focusing For Success
By: Oliver Thomas Spedding
Tags: Focus, Multitasking, Challenges In Life, Lists, Success

There is one characteristic that can be applied to achieve all types of success.

By

Oliver T. Spedding

Success comes in many forms and there are myriad books on how to achieve it.

But there is one characteristic that can be applied to achieve all types of success.

There’s nothing magic about it and the more you think about it, the more logical it becomes.

There are a huge number of books on the market that claim to tell you how to become successful.

Most of them focus on the way we need to think consistently to become successful.

What has become more and more obvious though, is that successful people have three dominant characteristics; they establish the one task that can make the biggest difference in their present situation, they prepare to tackle this particular problem thoroughly and then they focus on solving that one problem exclusively.

CHILDHOOD

When we are young, our lives are regulated; we rise at a specific time each morning and go to bed at a specific time, our meals are taken at specific times, our schooling follows specific times and our leisure time is also controlled.

But as we grow older these regulations are gradually phased out and we have far more choices or challenges to make.

It’s these lists of challenges that define how successful we are.

The longer the list of challenges is, the more likely they are survival challenges; tasks that don’t have a material influence on our lives.

They merely help us get through the day.

IMPORTANT CHALLENGES

The lists of important challenges that will change our circumstances drastically or solve major problems that we face are always a great deal shorter.

These challenges are such that, if they are resolved, will make everything else easier or unnecessary.

These challenges are the ones that can and will shape the future.

The important thing that needs to be done is to identify these important challenges and the results they will produce.

We need to sit down and analyze each challenge and identify what influence it has on our lives or the circumstances that we find ourselves in.

We need to identify the one challenge that will make the most significant difference to our situation and allow us to overcome the major obstacle we are facing.

We need to ask ourselves what is the single undertaking that I should do to solve the most important challenge that I’m facing?

Once we have identified this challenge we need to focus on resolving it exclusively.

MULTI-TASKING

Much has been made in the past about “multi-tasking” but in reality, multi-tasking is the quickest way to mediocrity and even non-achievement.

Trying to do even two tasks at the same time will result in both tasks receiving less attention than what they should be receiving, with the result that neither task will be as successfully concluded as it could have been.

Each task will interfere with the other in some way, and this can easily lead to mediocrity and possibly even failure.

Computers are extremely focused machines and, unlike people, they only processed one piece of code at a time.

Because of the speed with which they process their codes, they mistakenly appear to be multitasking.

But because of their programming, each task that they perform is first completed before the next one is taken on.

Each completed task then allows the next task to be dealt with.

They follow a logical progression that eventually leads to the final solution.

This is how we need to think.

We need to ask ourselves what do we need to do that will solve the major problem that we’re facing and will make everything else simpler or unnecessary?

But it doesn’t stop here.

Once we’ve identified the solitary thing that will lead to success, we need to plan the strategy that we will follow to achieve the desired effect.

Just like a computer, we need to have a progression that we can follow.

As an example, assume that you are planning to bake a cake.

Firstly, you need a recipe, and then you need to work out the order of the tasks that need to be followed.

By mentally going through these tasks before beginning, you create a sequence of tasks that will end in a delicious cake being produced.

Most recipes today, provide the baker with this process, but in most cases outside baking a cake, we have to create our own sequence.

FOCUSING ON THE TASK

Once we have mapped out the sequence that we need to follow, we need to discard all other tasks and focus completely on this one task.

By doing this, we can devote our full attention to what we are striving for and vastly increase the chances of success.

And, as the task progresses, we will gradually become aware that many of the other tasks that we faced will either disappear or become less significant.

Trying to do some ironing while you’re baking the cake will more than likely result in the cake being mediocre or flopping and the ironing being sloppily done.

The result from developing the habit of complete focus is inevitable: you produce the success you are searching for and also greatly simplify your life.

Most people believe that they have too little time to do all the things they need to do, whereas what is actually happening is that they are trying to do too many things in the time they have.

Success is not about doing everything right, it’s about doing the right thing.

The more time we spend on finding the one task that will have the most profound and positive influence on whatever we’re facing, and focusing solely on that problem until it is successfully completed, the more successful we will become.

Photographers acknowledgements

Man facing sun — Photo by Zac Durant on Unsplash

Child doing homework — Photo by Jerry Wang on Unsplash

Girl with telescope — Photo by Nine Köpfer on Unsplash

Woman in kitchen — Photo by Jason Briscoe on Unsplash

Target 2 — Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash