No one is coming to save you.
How does reading that sentence make you feel? It can be a scary thing, operating out there in the world, looking for answers, looking for the way forward, and finding yourself in seasons where all you see are closed doors. I’ve been there.
I bet you’ve been there too.
Man, the entire world has been living it since early 2020!
As I’ve traveled through the ranks of professional basketball and now down the roads of entrepreneurship and investing, I believe there’s one discipline that can answer that scary statement above … FOCUS.
Of course, there are a handful of foundational principles that can keep you on solid ground, keep you moving forward — we talk about them all the time on my podcast — but focus might be the most important of them all.
Gary Keller, in his incredible book “The One Thing” puts it this way:
“Extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus … when you spread yourself out, you end up spreading yourself thin.”
Similarly, from Greg McKeown’s “Essentialism” (a must read!):
“If there’s one thing you are passionate about — and that you can be best at — you should do just that one thing.”
I get it, there are a hundred things pulling us in all directions every day. We live in the most distracted age in the history of mankind … smartphones, smartwatches, Netflix, Instagram … and it can feel like those distractions have an even more powerful pull in the age of COVID!
See, a paradox of choice exists in life, whether you believe it does or not. The thinking that more options equal more freedom is false and can only lead to confusion, unhappiness, or even despair. That way actually leads to an oppression of choice, we become paralyzed by trying to entertain all options.
The truth lies in the opposite direction … fewer choices (focus) can often be the beginning point of happiness, peace, and success.
- You focused on one business instead of three?
- You focused on it until you burned a hole in it?
- You exhausted every possible way of moving it forward?
- You thought about it upon waking and before sleeping?
- You took action on it every single day (no days off!)
- You followed through with until the very end?
What do you think would happen then?
Through sharing your journey you may even find an accountability partner. From my experience, having a team share a common goal helps motivate me and keep me going.
In my experience, those “what ifs” are the key to success in business. One thing. Less is more. Ruthless focus. From that focus comes success and from that success all the opportunity you’ll ever need will walk right up to your doorstep.
Sure, no one is coming to save you.
But if you focus your entire genius, your entire effort, on that thing you know you should be working on, nobody will have to come and save you. You’ll be doing that job just fine, yourself.
Have you subscribed to my podcast, Betting on Yourself? Every week, I talk to some of the most interesting people in the world about life, entrepreneurship, and making the best (and safest) bet in the world … on you! Click that link above and jump on my email list right now so you never miss an episode.