Time and again I read about how the greatest achievers of our time attribute their success to one ingredient, an ability to achieve singular focus on the important stuff. It happens over and over again. I’ve heard this message from Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and hundreds of other leaders in the world of business and the world of sports. It appears that being able to focus when success becomes essential, is a critical factor to those who succeed. 

High performing coaches and athletes talk about “the zone,” and high performing business leaders speak about being able to achieve “flow.” Flow is the Zen-like state where you lose yourself and become so engaged in the present moment that the world around you seems to disappear. Then it’s just you and the Board of Directors Meeting, or it’s just you and the golf course. I love the concept, whether you call it “the zone” or prefer “flow”, to me it’s the same thing. I want to help provide a roadmap for you about how to get there.

First, you must be completely willing to get significantly outside of your normal neighborhood or comfort zone. Not only will you have to do this, but you’ll also have to do it on a regular basis to exercise the areas of your brain where you can better focus and process information in ways that will propel you forward.

Get started by focusing on one objective at a time. Start with whatever’s most important whenever possible. Having 10 or 12 disparate goals in your mind is not conducive to single-minded focus, but on the other hand, being laser-focused on one thing works.

Challenge yourself to pursue a really audacious goal that is well outside of your normal comfort zone and set aside an hour or two to work on that objective and only that objective. When your hour or two has been consumed, you may have completed your objective. If so, celebrate. If not, take a break and move on to other work. When your battery is replenished, come back to your audacious goal and keep moving it forward in 1-2 hour bursts until you master and complete it.

Michael is an award-winning Executive Development Coach who works with mid-sized companies in the high technology space in the US to help them to develop their next generation of leaders, from the C-Suite down to their Emerging Leaders. If you’d like more information about Michael’s game-changing Emerging Leaders coaching programs, send us an email at info@michaelbeachcoach.com. We wish you great success in finding your focus…