Latest / Inspirations for Your Life / Focus What Matters (S5) S13:E6

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Focus What Matters (S5) S13:E6 · Inspirations for Your Life

0:24
Well, hey guys, good morning, it is John
0:28
C.
0:28
Morley here, serial entrepreneur.
0:30
It's great to be with you on the
0:32
Inspirations for Your Life show.
0:35
Hope you're enjoying your day, your evening.
0:38
If this is the very first time you're
0:39
joining me, I want to say thank you
0:42
and welcome.
0:44
If you've been here many times before, all
0:45
I want to say, thank you, and of
0:47
course, welcome back.
0:48
It's always great to have people that enjoy
0:50
the quality and content that I produce here
0:52
on the Inspirations for Your Life show.
0:54
This is a daily motivational show.
0:56
We are on the air now, oh, four
0:59
years, and this is starting our fifth year,
1:03
so it's four years and three months in
1:05
just a few more days, so it's great
1:07
to be with you.
1:09
And if you have not checked out BelieveMeAchieve
1:11
.com, go do that after the show is
1:14
over.
1:14
If you're thirsty, if you're hungry, want a
1:17
piece of fruit or some other snack, feel
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free to grab that.
1:21
Come on back to the show so we
1:24
can kick this off.
1:27
All right, guys, this is Inspirations for Your
1:29
Life, and I'm so grateful to have everyone
1:31
here.
1:32
It is Thursday.
1:33
It's a wonderful Thursday, March 26, 2026.
1:37
Hey, almost the numbers match up there.
1:39
Not all of them, but 3262026, so that's
1:42
pretty cool.
1:42
So our master topic for the week is
1:45
see it right, live it strong.
1:48
And this is series five, show 13, guys,
1:54
and yes, this is episode number six.
2:00
So today's granular topic is focus on what
2:03
matters.
2:05
Oh, by the way, I'm John C.
2:07
Morley.
2:08
In case you didn't know, I'm a serial
2:09
entrepreneur, I'm an engineer, marketing specialist, video producer,
2:13
podcast host, coach, keynote speaker, graduate student, and
2:18
a passionate lifelong learner.
2:20
It's my privilege and pleasure to be with
2:21
you here, and pretty soon I will be
2:24
a published author and very excited for that
2:26
day.
2:27
When your vision sharpens, your decisions improve, I'm
2:32
not sure if you knew that.
2:33
Today's episode is all about focusing on what
2:36
truly matters to you, cutting distractions, aligning your
2:39
priorities, and building unstoppable momentum.
2:42
Let's explore actionable strategies that elevate clarity, drive,
2:47
and long-term results.
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That's what it's about, guys.
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Focus what matters, okay?
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I'm going to give you 30 points that
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you can take action on right now.
2:58
So first is focus creates results.
3:02
Where attention goes, energy flows.
3:05
You've heard that before.
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That is number one.
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Number two, guys, is priorities shape your life.
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Decide what truly matters.
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I think that's something that a lot of
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people don't really get, is that it's about
3:21
what matters.
3:23
All right.
3:23
Number three, cut distractions.
3:26
Remove what steals your time and your energy,
3:30
because there's lots of things that steal it
3:32
during the day.
3:34
Intentionally and non-intentionally.
3:37
So make sure that you are focused on
3:40
those things that you want in your life
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and that you don't let things get in
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your way.
3:45
All right, guys.
3:46
Number four, focus your energy.
3:50
Concentrate fully on high-impact tasks, okay?
3:54
I think that's a very important one to
3:59
understand.
4:02
What you focus on grows and invests in
4:06
the area that drives outcomes.
4:09
Number five, clarity improves focus.
4:11
So knowing your goals sharpens your attention.
4:16
We know where we're going.
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It's a lot easier to get there.
4:20
Number six, eliminate what slows you.
4:24
Say no to low.
4:26
Value the tasks.
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I think that's a very important one that
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a lot of people often miss.
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So definitely, definitely understand what that means for
4:41
you, because I think it means something pretty
4:44
unique.
4:46
Number six, focus builds momentum.
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Consistent energy compounds results.
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It really does.
4:54
Number seven, direction beats busyness.
4:59
Purposeful steps matter more than the motion that
5:04
you are taking.
5:06
And it's the purposeful actions that we do,
5:09
right, that I think makes our life, you
5:11
know, so amazing to be able to move
5:13
forward.
5:15
Number eight, guys, focus creates power.
5:20
Concentrate effort produces leverage.
5:24
And I think a lot of people don't
5:27
often understand what leverage is.
5:30
Leverage is something that is very, very, very
5:33
powerful.
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And something that I think, if you understand
5:36
it, can really make a very big difference,
5:40
you know, in your life.
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But the thing is, you got to be
5:43
consistent with it, right?
5:44
You've got to be consistent and you've got
5:46
to understand how this works and how it
5:50
can change your life.
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So I think that's a very important thing
5:55
to understand.
5:57
And hopefully, that'll help you in your life.
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And I hope that it doesn't just help
6:02
you in your life.
6:03
I hope it helps give you an understanding,
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okay?
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Number nine, choose what matters.
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Deliberate choices outweigh random action all the time.
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When we're deliberate, we're purposeful, right?
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We're intentional.
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That's important.
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Number 10, protect your time.
6:30
Guard your schedule like it's sacred.
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I remember when it was COVID time and
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I had thought that because, you know, everything
6:37
was online, it was okay to just publish
6:40
my schedule and let people know every moment
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I was free.
6:43
And that was the worst thing I ever
6:45
could do because people were jumping on my
6:48
schedule that didn't even deserve to be on
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my schedule.
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Not that I'm trying to be judgmental here,
6:52
but these people were trying to pitch me.
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So I was in this one networking group,
6:57
which kind of basically folded, and they were
7:01
all about this concept that, you know, you
7:03
need to give people 15 minutes, you get
7:07
15 minutes.
7:07
But a lot of the people there, they
7:09
were pitching you.
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And so I broke away from that.
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But not only that, I realized that if
7:13
people are going to get time on my
7:14
calendar, even now, if they're not like a
7:17
pre-approved with me, they get 15 or
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30 minutes.
7:20
They don't get anything more than that.
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And I try to steer people to just
7:23
a quick 15 minute.
7:25
Number 11, guys, focus creates clarity.
7:29
Attention clarifies the decisions.
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So when we focus, we turn off the
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noises around us.
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I think that's an important thing, that we
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can't get somewhere if there's too much noise
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around us, all right?
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That's a very, very important thing.
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So number 12, energy follows attention.
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Where you look, you lead.
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Less is more.
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And I think that's an important thing to
8:04
realize.
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Number 13, guys, simplicity strengthens results.
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Focus builds strength.
8:11
Repeat attention develops the mental stamina.
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Number 14, guys, remove distractions, daily vigilance.
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Maintains the momentum.
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That consistency I keep talking about, right?
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That's the key.
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Number 15, prioritize growth.
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Invest in what increases skill and impact.
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Number 16, focus creates progress.
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Concentrated action accelerates forward motion.
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Number 16, stay on what matters.
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Persistent attention will always trump everything else.
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That consistency is gold.
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Number 17, guys, attention is power.
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Every moment counts toward mastery.
9:09
Number 18, focus builds results.
9:12
Intentional effort drives outcomes.
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It really does.
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So when we understand that our focus builds
9:22
the result, we are reaching who we are.
9:32
And I think that's a very important thing.
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Number 19, protect your focus.
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Defend against interruptions and noise.
9:44
Number 20, choose wisely.
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Every decision either builds or drains your energy.
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So make sure you understand what it's doing,
9:52
because if you find out later, it might
9:54
be too late, especially if it's draining your
9:57
energy.
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I think that's a problem for a lot
10:01
of people.
10:02
They don't realize that it's draining your energy.
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So make sure that you move forward with
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that.
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Focus builds success, success and clarity.
10:14
Energy creates sustainable wins.
10:17
Number 20, guys, stay intentional.
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Act with purpose in all your decisions.
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And I think when we act with purpose,
10:26
our life gets a new type of wrapping.
10:31
It gets a new type of hope.
10:34
And that's something I think a lot of
10:35
us look forward to every day.
10:38
Number 21, eliminate that noise around you.
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Filter out irrelevant information.
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That's important too, really important too, because that
10:51
matters, guys, really matters.
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Number 22, focus drives action.
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Clarity fuels execution every single time, hands down.
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Number 23, what matters most when small consistent
11:09
efforts are compounded?
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Number 24, focus defines your path.
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Sustained attention creates a life of impact.
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I think a lot of times, you know,
11:24
we want to go a certain direction, but
11:26
we can't because there's this voice in our
11:29
head that's saying, oh, you can't do this,
11:30
you can't do this, you can't do that.
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But really the case is you can do
11:34
that.
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It's just that it's not working at the
11:38
moment.
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I think that's a very important thing to
11:45
understand where we are right now, okay?
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But some people, they just get lost.
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And they get lost along the way because
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they just, I guess, don't know
12:06
what the next step should be.
12:08
And that happens sometimes from depression.
12:10
It can happen for a lot of different
12:12
reasons.
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Most people here struggle with.
12:23
They struggle with that concept that, you know,
12:26
we want to move forward, but for whatever
12:29
reason.
12:34
And maybe you don't quite get it, but
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we move in these, how can I say,
12:50
subtle pivots.
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When we try to take these gigantic, you
12:56
know, 180 or 360 moves, they often backfire.
13:01
Maybe we don't have the resources.
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Maybe we don't have the knowledge yet.
13:07
Or maybe we get burnt out because we're
13:12
trying to do too much at one time.
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Yeah, if I had to ask everyone right
13:20
now, what does focus mean for them?
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I think most people would say to me,
13:24
John, it's paying attention.
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And I would say more than 80%, you're
13:31
right.
13:32
But there's more to focus than paying attention.
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It is being present in the moment.
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Let's see if I can give an example.
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If you're in a conversation with someone and
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they're talking, being focused means that you're not
13:47
trying to interject your word.
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You're listening.
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And when the natural pause happens, that's when
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you're going to go ahead and, you know,
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insert a comment.
14:02
But usually it'll be in response to what
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they have said.
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What else is focus?
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Focus is being in a lecture or a
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seminar and not just paying attention to it,
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but figuring out how do I fit into
14:22
this?
14:23
How can this knowledge help me?
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How can I apply it?
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And applying is something that many students rush
14:33
to do, but they don't have all the
14:36
information yet.
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So because they don't have all the information,
14:40
they start, but then they can't finish.
14:45
Maybe you've known someone that's tried to put
14:47
together a desk or a chair or another
14:49
piece of furniture, and they haven't properly looked
14:52
at the directions.
14:53
Now you might be very smart and that's
14:54
great, but all these furniture manufacturers, they put
14:58
things together differently.
15:00
And you got another just between a whatchamajig
15:02
and a thingamabob and a hoochamajig.
15:04
You have to know what these things are,
15:05
what they call them and how they're used.
15:08
And the fact that you might want to
15:09
put, let's say maybe the draw together first,
15:15
right?
15:16
Might make sense.
15:17
You can't until you do something else, or
15:21
you can't put the table together until you
15:23
first put together the top.
15:27
Other ones you have to put the base
15:28
together first, right?
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So I think these, I'm gonna call them
15:34
nuances.
15:35
Give people, they give them frustration.
15:43
I was just dealing with a challenge, a
15:47
longtime client, and they had changed their procedures.
15:53
Was just getting some car service done.
15:58
And they had changed their procedures because they
16:03
normally don't get a loaner car because they
16:05
usually don't need one.
16:07
But this procedure was some software update that
16:09
had messed up the whole navigation on the
16:11
car.
16:11
Seems that Acura had decided that they were
16:13
gonna roll out some new satellites.
16:15
However, the car was not smart enough to
16:18
figure them out yet because the network wasn't
16:19
totally finished.
16:21
So it's still looking at the old and
16:23
it's just been a whole mess.
16:25
And I got there and first of all,
16:28
the contract was not on paper anymore.
16:30
It was digital.
16:32
Okay, everything's going digital.
16:34
Then they said to me, oh, John, there'll
16:35
be a $350 deposit.
16:41
So I said to myself, what's that for?
16:45
They said, oh, for the loaner.
16:47
I said, all the years, this is like
16:49
my eighth Acura.
16:51
I've never paid a deposit.
16:52
Well, John, it's a new policy.
16:55
And I think sometimes when we hear the
16:59
word policy, we just feel that we have
17:02
to do it because that's the umbrella word.
17:05
And I said to him, you're gonna lose
17:07
a lot of clients doing stuff like that.
17:12
Especially if people have been with you for
17:13
years.
17:16
He said to me, John, I don't disagree
17:20
with you.
17:21
However, this comes from corporate and I can't
17:23
really make any deviations.
17:27
So I said to him, where is corporate?
17:33
Corporate doesn't know the difference between somebody who's
17:35
been a client for seven, eight cars as
17:39
opposed to somebody who just came on board.
17:41
I said, maybe these are your policies for
17:43
today, but I should be grandfathered in from
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the past.
17:51
They told me, no, it's a policy.
17:58
So I handed him my debit card.
18:00
They said to me, oh, we don't take
18:03
debit cards.
18:06
So you rolled out a policy, didn't inform
18:11
me about it before the visit.
18:12
Don't take debit cards.
18:13
Now I gotta give you a credit card.
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Focus is about meaning, is about understanding your
18:25
customer.
18:26
Focus is about understanding you.
18:28
Too many people that don't focus cause other
18:34
people frustration, confusion, disappointment.
18:43
Focus is something that should be consistent in
18:45
your life.
18:48
If you are meditating, it's important to focus,
18:54
but a relaxed kind of focused.
18:56
It's a different focus than the focus you
19:00
probably have right now listening to me, whether
19:02
you're driving or whether you're home or working
19:05
out and you're listening to my motivational insights.
19:11
Focus is when, I think I've said this
19:14
before, you can imagine yourself being a lion,
19:19
okay?
19:20
And you can sit on the edge of
19:21
the chair, all right?
19:25
And you can listen so acutely that you
19:30
could hear a pin drop or the slightest
19:35
rustle in a forest.
19:41
And when we can give ourselves analogies like
19:45
that, I think what happens is we become
19:50
that situation.
19:52
We become part of that story, but a
19:59
focus doesn't just transpire because we want it
20:04
to.
20:05
We've gotta be in the moment.
20:08
Let me see if I can give you
20:09
an example.
20:10
Many college courses have professors that are dry.
20:16
They might be funny, but they don't really
20:20
engage the students with the content.
20:24
Just because somebody's funny or moving around doesn't
20:28
mean they're a good teacher, to be quite
20:32
honest.
20:36
And so if you try with all your
20:41
might to focus on a professor and you
20:46
can't stay on track, it's usually not you.
20:54
It's the dynamic to the way they're presenting.
21:00
Just because they're funny, just because they move
21:02
around doesn't mean that you're gonna buy their
21:06
story.
21:11
And then rushing off to the next point,
21:19
when you can focus on something, that's a
21:25
skill.
21:26
But when focusing can be made easier for
21:29
you, it's helpful, right?
21:32
It's also another skill, right?
21:36
Another skill.
21:40
And if I was to ask you right
21:41
now, whether you're in the car or wherever
21:45
you are, focus on the objects in front
21:48
of you.
21:50
Notice their colors, notice their shapes, notice their
21:55
speeds, which you're probably doing already if you're
21:57
driving.
22:00
And as you're focusing on that, you're becoming
22:02
aware of not just the vehicles or the
22:06
objects in front of you or the people,
22:08
but the entire environment around them so that
22:12
you get perspective.
22:14
That's how we know when something's moving.
22:16
When an object is moving, we look at
22:19
its stationary point and we can tell the
22:22
object is in motion.
22:25
Otherwise it gets kind of hard to tell
22:26
whether the object is moving or not, if
22:28
everything's moving, right?
22:30
If the world was, let's say you're on
22:32
a moving sidewalk and you're walking the sidewalk,
22:38
it's kind of hard to tell you're moving
22:39
in and it's moving if you're moving it
22:41
around the same pace, right?
22:44
That can be hard.
22:46
So focus is a skill that I believe
22:50
everyone needs to learn.
22:52
You might learn it when you're younger, you
22:54
might learn it when you're older, but there's
22:56
different types of focus.
23:00
There's focus for learning, okay?
23:05
There is focus for, I'll call it an
23:09
understanding, which is different than learning.
23:12
Understanding is trying to be able to give
23:17
empathy or sympathy to a situation.
23:20
So you have to be understanding.
23:24
When I mentioned focus to a lot of
23:26
students, I talk about a camera lens because
23:30
most people can relate to a camera lens.
23:33
And I talk about setting the aperture.
23:36
And I talk about taking the lens and
23:38
some of the new cameras, obviously you can
23:40
press a button and it will do AF,
23:41
auto-focus, but when we auto-focus, it's
23:46
set on a certain range.
23:48
So if we wanna go a little bit
23:50
in focus, a little bit out of focus
23:51
for a picture concept, we can't.
23:54
So we have to take it out of
23:55
manual, we have to put it in manual
23:57
mode, I'm sorry, and take it out of
23:59
auto-focus mode.
24:02
So if you were to have a camera
24:04
on you and you were to focus on
24:07
an object and that object were to move
24:10
out or move in, the focus would change,
24:15
the focus would change.
24:17
In order for you to get a good
24:19
picture, you would have to readjust the camera
24:22
unless you're on auto-focus.
24:26
When somebody's presentation style changes, you have to
24:31
adapt the focus.
24:33
Maybe you've gone to some seminars or you've
24:38
gone to, let's say a speaker series, and
24:46
maybe one or two speakers, you're focusing one
24:49
way, but when this other professor gets up
24:52
or this other speaker gets up, you've gotta
24:55
change your focus because it doesn't connect the
24:59
same way it did to the first people.
25:02
So if I wanted to use the word
25:05
focus beside the camera, I would say focus
25:11
is when an individual is 100% cognizant
25:17
and aware of his or her surroundings.
25:21
People, places, objects, things.
25:25
That can be things like the temperature, the
25:28
size, the speed, the color, right?
25:33
The texture, the tone.
25:37
Um, the volume.
25:41
These are all things that help us to
25:44
understand focus.
25:47
And when we focus, we notice each one
25:51
of these attributes or these subtleties, which actually
25:55
help us connect to what it is we're
25:58
trying to learn or experience.
26:04
And we think about the word experience and
26:09
we think about the word fun.
26:12
Do we focus when we're having fun?
26:14
We do, but it's a different kind of
26:16
focus.
26:17
It's a relaxed focus.
26:20
If I take a picture of a group
26:22
of people, it's a different focus than if
26:24
I take a picture of a landscape.
26:27
There's a difference, there's a different perspective to
26:29
that.
26:32
So when we change our perspective in life,
26:35
we actually can affect our focus.
26:39
We actually do.
26:43
And as things change, information changes, people change,
26:48
situations change, we have to be aware of
26:53
that and adapt to it.
26:56
Changing our focus, changing our perspective.
27:02
That's key.
27:04
Ladies and gentlemen, in closing today, I wanna
27:06
let you know that you need to remember
27:09
success is built on intentional focus, clarity and
27:15
momentum.
27:16
Please ladies and gentlemen, protect your attention, prioritize
27:20
what matters and stay deliberate in your actions.
27:24
You can and will catch this with practice.
27:29
Be sure to check out all my other
27:30
great episodes, replay this one and many others
27:33
by visiting believemeachieve.com.
27:36
24 hours a day, you can apply these
27:39
principles right now, daily in your life.
27:44
And you know what ladies and gentlemen, you
27:46
can slowly watch the results compound and multiply
27:50
in your life.
27:53
A person with intention and focus can go
27:57
anywhere.
27:58
Have yourself a great rest of your day
27:59
or evening and I'll catch you real soon
28:00
and check out believemeachieve.com.