There’s a few things that are essential to success
Working on the right thing in the right direction - often doing less or nothing until you do the right thing is the answer.
Persistence and Consistency - keep doing it.
The ability to work effectively
These all come down to focus - how well you can control your mind, decide what to focus on and apply yourself. Focus operates on two levels - the direction of that focus and the application of it.
Focus is the ability to direct and sustain your mind. But what you direct it at is only as good as your judgment about what’s worth directing it at.
Focus without judgment is powerful motion in a possibly-wrong direction. Judgment without focus is knowing the right way and never moving. You need both, and they’re not the same faculty - one is control, the other is discernment.
It’s funny that focus is not the same as working hard. You can work hard, you can put energy in, but that alone is not sustainable. You can get tired, burn out, get distracted. Focus is more calm and intentional.
It’s a higher level control that says - perhaps I don’t need to work hard at this at all. It’s about awareness, of yourself, of the landscape of the pieces. It often overrides hard work. It’s often harder to do than hard work.
It’s deceptively simple. It feels like its not important, it feels like working hard should solve everything. It feels like you shouldn’t need to work on your focus.
Focus is about resolving the inner battles you have with yourself each day.
The friction between the infinite choices we face, the friction between different parts of ourselves that pull in different direction.
It’s all about alignment.
About finding the alignment between what drives you, and putting the pieces together of your work, your life, your day.
It’s a big unlock to be incredibly focused, and most people aren’t, so how do you do it?
Decide that you want it - do you actually want to be focused? Your life can really change when you are focused
Picture what it looks like
Focus is all about doing the basics right - focus is a byproduct of your inputs - your diet, your information diet, your relationships, your sleep, your exercise, your environment, and it feeds itself. By being aligned, our focus grows.
Get bored! Focus is about being bored so that the boring becomes interesting.
Getting rid of everything that makes you unfocused.