Where do you place your focus?
“I don’t care how much power, brilliance or energy you have, if you don’t harness it and focus it on a specific target, and hold it there you’re never going to accomplish as much as your ability warrants.” - Zig Ziglar
Greetings and Happy New Year!
Take a look at the sketch above. Just pause for a second and look at it. Take a second to think about it.
I really do love this sketch and I think that’s because it speaks not just to our financial lives, but to our complex, sticky, tricky, emotional lives as well.
We only have so much time, energy, and attention. Only so much we can focus on.
So… how do we decide where to place our focus?
When I’m trying to answer that question, I think back to this sketch, take a step back, and ask myself two questions:
Does it matter?
Can I control it?
Unless the answer is yes on both counts, you can stop thinking about it! For me, the list of things I can stop thinking about includes:
Whether the Pandemic will come to an end this year (because I can’t control it).
Whether I could have saved $5 on groceries by going to a different store (because it doesn’t matter).
Whether the stock market is in flux right now (because I can’t control it).
That guy who cut me off in traffic (because it doesn’t matter).
As I shift my thinking by NOT thinking about any of those things, I am suddenly freed up to think about the things I CAN control and that DO matter. For example:
How can I practice safe guidelines and habits to ensure I’m doing my part to help curve the virus.
How I can get my shopping to align with my values.
How I behave when stock market fluctuations happen.
Learning to count to 10, taking a deep breath, and letting go when other drivers act like jerks.
Just imagine what might happen if you quit worrying about things you have no control over and quit obsessing over things that don’t matter.
Where else might you be able to invest that extra time, energy, and attention?
Would you do me a favor?
Give it a shot, keep track of the results, then send me a note and let me know what you discovered!
Thanks,
Danny Bullock