Do One Thing a Time - How Being Focused in the Moment Can Lead to Greater Happiness and Success

Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.” – Alexander Graham Bell

Focus is very powerful. Let me rephrase that. Focus is magical. You don’t believe me? Try closing your eyes right now and focus on negative thoughts for a minute or two. Think about things like losing your job or losing a loved one to sickness. Now, focus on those thoughts and tell me what you feel. Not good right? That’s the magical influence of focus.

When you focus on something good for a length of time, you will reap a harvest of good, whether it be health, money, or success. Focus on being sick and tired and you’ll be feeling sick and tired all the time. Allow your thoughts to jump from one thing to another and you’ll probably not get anything done. It may sound like a new age teaching, but I believe there is a natural law involved here.

Even if you’re not the most talented, or the most hardworking individual, if you know how to use focus to your advantage, you can be the happiest and most successful person in the room. Here are three ways focus can lead to greater happiness and success.

Focus Allows You to Set Priorities

We are living in a world where having and doing more seems better. We are living in a generation wherein we are constantly bombarded both by tasks and by information that crave for our attention. While there is nothing wrong with possessing more or doing more, the problem comes when we think that we actually need such things when we actually don’t. Popular television shows, social networking sites, and e-mails – all these things seem important, but we didn’t have them twenty years ago and we did just fine. If you are person who lacks focus, your mind will constantly be stressed by the incredible demands you allow things to put on your life. This is where focus comes in. Focus lets you choose what things are most important to you at a given time, allowing you to limit yourself only to what is really essential – your family, your health, and your job – everything else is just mere distraction.

Focus Helps You Get the Job Done

Some people love multitask. This is because their personality causes them to feel the rush of doing something new. When it comes to work, however, jumping from one task to another doesn’t necessarily get the job done. In fact, it hinders productivity. On the other hand, you’ll find yourself more productive if you focus on one thing at a time and being great at it. Bruce Lee once said, “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” It means that no matter how good you are at many different things, you won’t be as in demand as the person who is known to be great at one thing.

Focus Fuels Your Passion

Focus and passion go hand in hand. You can’t simply have focus and not have passion because it’ll cause you to burn out. At the same time, you can’t have passion without focus, because it’ll cause you to end up without any clear path in life. If you want to have a really successful career, do something you are passionate about and be really great at it by focusing your time, money, and energy on that one thing.

The human mind is not designed to focus on multiple things at once. In order for you to get the most out of life without putting at risk your relationship with your partner, your kids, and other people you love, start practicing the art of focusing today.