Focus book summary — for myself only.
When Bill Gates met Warren Buffet for the first time, Gates’s mother, the host of the dinner, asked everyone around the table to identify what they believed was the single most important factor in their success. Both Gates and Buffet gave the same answer. Can you guess what it was? Focus.
Focus is one of the most important assets you will ever have, which is why it’s constantly under attack.
Your ability to focus is one of the most important assets you have. Why? Focus is a magical tool that can both slow and magnify time. And time is one of the scarcest and most valuable resources you will ever have.
Why is your focus so powerful? Focus acts like an ax. If you try to cut down a tree by hitting it in thousands of different spots, you’ll never succeed. But when you focus and hit the same spot over and over, you can cut down even the biggest tree. With laser-sharp focus you can achieve almost anything you desire.
Why is your focus so powerful? Focus acts like an ax. If you try to cut down a tree by hitting it in thousands of different spots, you’ll never succeed. But when you focus and hit the same spot over and over, you can cut down even the biggest tree. With laser-sharp focus you can achieve almost anything you desire.
Remember, your focus is powerful but only when you sustain it for long enough and point it in the right direction. Often, it is not the smarter person who achieves the best results, it’s the most focused one. An average person with laser focus can, over time, accomplish more than a genius with poor focus.
In the end, what you choose to focus your attention on every day will determine your future. When your focus is sharp and directed toward a definite outcome, your time is well-spent. As a result, you’re able to achieve most of the results you want in all areas of your life. But when your focus is scattered, your ability to produce tangible outcomes is severely limited. As a result, you struggle to achieve anything significant. For instance, if you focus on changing your career and put your attention toward that goal every day, you’ll eventually achieve it. Alternatively, if you focus on that goal only once in while or seek to create multiple side hustles instead, you’ll likely fail. Even if you do succeed, it will take you far longer than necessary. By now, I hope you understand why your focus is such a valuable asset. If you fail to take control of it, everybody around you — family, media, politicians, marketers, et cetera — will seek to direct it toward the things they want you to think about or do. Or you will let your mind wander, losing focus throughout the day. Instead of being proactive, you’ll be reactive, which is why so many people jump from one thing to the next or say yes to everything instead of focusing on what they want to create.
Working on the right things the right way. This is when true productivity happens. Your short-term, transitional and long-term focus are great. That is, your vision is exciting, your plan is well-designed, and your concentration is excellent. This is the situation you should aim for — it will allow you to achieve most of your goals over the long term.
To know what you should focus on every day, you must establish a clear vision for your life. Personally, whatever I do each day is geared toward leading me to the future I want to create. As far as work is concerned, I don’t do things randomly or on a whim. I do things with my long-term plan in mind, and I believe you should do the same.
Your ability to think long-term is one of the best predictors of your success.
“If I keep doing what I’m doing today, will I end up where I want to be five years from now?” Asking myself this question helps me: Ensure I make every day count, Identify key tasks I must work on, and Avoid kidding myself by working on unproductive tasks.
The thing differentiating humans from other living beings is our ability to imagine things that aren’t there and our ability to create them. This creative power allows us to achieve extraordinary things. You have the same power inside you. You can envision the way you want your life to be and turn this into a reality.
Your values should be non-negotiable. Because your core values are what matter most to you, they naturally act as guiding principles for your life. This means, when you face situations that challenge your values, you are able to stand firm to those values. For instance, if honesty is your most important value, you’ll go the extra mile to ensure your behavior and decisions are consistent with this value. If freedom — manifesting as being self-employed — is your most important value, you’ll fight hard to maintain or create that situation. You’ll work for someone else only if you have no choice or if it is part of your long-term goal to become self-employed (e.g., the desire to learn a new skill or gain experience).
You have a clear vision, You’re moving closer to that vision every day, and You have compelling enough reasons why this vision must become a reality. Indeed, the more reasons you have for achieving a goal, the more likely you are to reach it.
Create a list of “whys.” Come up with at least twenty reasons you must make your vision a reality. Try to select reasons with an emotional component and connect them with your deepest values and aspirations.
To paraphrase the success expert Brian Tracy, most people spend more time writing their grocery lists than they do writing their life plan. What about you? Have you ever sat down to write how you want your life to be in the coming ten years? You might have an excellent ability to concentrate on the task in front of you, but if you’re working on the wrong task, it’s pretty pointless, right?
Process goals The main characteristics of process goals are as follows: You have control over them. When reached, they contribute to the achievement of bigger goals. They can often be achieved by doing the same specific task consistently/daily. For instance, one of my goals this year is to sell 50,000 books on Amazon. Process goals for this specific goal could look like this: Write and publish six new books on Amazon. Run 1,000 new ads using Amazon Marketing Services. Contact twenty authors for future cross-promotions.
To give you an example, I never stopped writing books almost every day even when I was barely selling any copies. In the same way, you should never stop prospecting clients, applying for your dream job or working on your craft. Do what you need to do every day over and over again until you achieve results. Focus on the process.
What do I need to do today to guarantee I will achieve my weekly goals? Now that you have taken the time to break down your goals into bite-sized chunks, the only thing you need to do is to focus on today’s goals. And you need to repeat the same tomorrow and the day after. This is why creating the right vision and breaking it down meticulously is so important. It allows you to have faith in the daily process and stay focused on the task ahead while avoiding distractions. In short, it enhances your focus.
Step 1. Prioritizing your task Before you even start doing anything, ask yourself the following questions: If I could do only one thing today, which task would have the most impact? Is this task moving me closer to my main goal? Do I really need to do it right now, or should I do it later?
To sum up, before tackling any task, take a few minutes to work out the best possible way to approach it. This habit alone will save you a lot of time and effort down the road.
Belief #1 — The default answer is no.
Avoid saying yes to every request. Instead, make no your default answer. Remember, whenever you say yes to something you move your focus away from other things you could be doing with your time. Belief #2 — Valuing my time is valuing myself. Time is one of your most valuable assets. Don’t give it to anybody just because they ask for it. Instead, protect it fiercely. You are valuable, and people should respect you and your time. Belief #3 — If someone needs my time, they must schedule an appointment. Stop interrupting what you’re doing to care for other people’s needs. Don’t answer your phone right away or respond to emails immediately. Instead, protect your time and avoid interruption at all cost. Adopt the mindset that if people want to talk to you, they need to schedule an appointment. Make yourself hard to reach. You don’t give money to everyone who asks for it, do you? Don’t do it with your time either. Remember, your time is more important than money. Belief #4 — I always have enough time for whatever I’m committed to. Stop saying you don’t have enough time. If you’re really committed to something, you’ll find the time. And if you can’t find the time, it’s probably not that important to you. Belief #5 — I schedule my priorities. Schedule time every day to work on your top priorities. See it as an appointment with yourself and stick to it. You wouldn’t miss an appointment with the doctor, would you? Then don’t miss an appointment with yourself either.
Remember, whenever you say “Yes” to something, you say “No” to something else. Consequently, for each decision you make there is an opportunity missed. For instance, by agreeing to join a project you’re not interested in, you say no to a more exciting project or to extra time spent with your family.
How often do you say “No”? Successful people say “No” to almost every offer they receive. Do you?
To focus on what matters and design the life you want, you must learn to say “No” over and over again. “No” must become your default answer.
Remember this simple truth: You can either be focused or you can be distracted, but you can never be both at the same time.
You can also decide how much time you’ll spend on a certain task. For instance, you can give yourself ten minutes, and only ten minutes, to check Facebook.
Most people overreact to their direct environment. They answer the phone as soon as it rings, respond to emails immediately, and jump to help whoever ask for their support. They’re more than willing to abandon whatever they’re working on for non-critical things.
To focus better on the task at hand, it is important for you to limit interruptions as much as possible. Let’s review two things you can do in this regard.
People who try to do everything tend to achieve nothing of real value. Consequently, to achieve significant results long term, focus on one major project at a time until you succeed. Then, and only then, move on to the next project and repeat the cycle. This is how you’ll likely achieve extraordinary results, not by trying to do everything at once.
Let’s say you want to start three businesses that we’ll call Businesses A, B and C. Now, you can either work on all three at once and hustle like crazy, or you can select one, focus on it for a set amount of time — until you get the desired results — and then move on to the next one. Although it may sound counterintuitive, in most cases, the second approach generates far better results than the first in the long term.
A. Getting the basics right In most cases, people would be more productive if they improved their diet, exercised more regularly and went to bed early. Nothing new here. Eating well, taking exercise and sleeping properly are part of these things you already know you should be doing.
But are you really eating, exercising and sleeping well consistently every day? It is incredibly difficult to stay focused when your fundamentals are weak. So be honest, ask with yourself:
You fail because the methods you try keep changing. What doesn’t change is you. You are the constant and you are taking yourself with you from product to product and course to course. You are repeating the same pattern over and over again and, as long as you keep doing this, you’ll never achieve the results you want.
There is no magic pill. For the most part, the magic ingredient is you! You have to make things work.
The point is, what matters the most is not the information you receive, it’s what you do with it. Once you understand how to use the information you have effectively, you can achieve results even with average quality information. Conversely, if you fail to develop the proper mindset, none of the programs will work for you.
Remember this: your ability to execute is key. In fact, this is far more important than the quality and quantity of the ideas or information you have. When you put into practice what you learn consistently over a long period of time, things will start changing for you.
When you set a new exciting goal, do you ever say to yourself, “I’m going to work on this goal for a while just to give up when the going gets tough the same way everybody else does?” I doubt it very much. If this were the case, you wouldn’t have started in the first place, would you? The magic happens when you sustain your effort consistently after the initial excitement wears off. If you persevere for long enough, you’ll start seeing results and your motivation will return. Bear in mind that the process we call “success” is never linear. It consists of ups and downs. Although it may look as though you’re going from setback to setback, you may very well wake up one day to realize you’re on track to achieving all your goals.
Remember, you take yourself with you to every goal you choose to pursue. You are the constant, and when you decide on something you want to achieve, you must be the one thing that stays constant. You must remain consistent until you see tangible results. Otherwise, you’ll keep jumping from one project to another, never achieving anything of real personal value.
Sometimes, you would rather give up prematurely than going all the way and fail. Why? It’s because you’re afraid to discover you aren’t as good as you imagined. As long as you refuse to give your best, you don’t need to find out the truth about yourself. You can tell yourself the program isn’t working or that, if you had really wanted to, you could have achieved your goals. But is it true?
The bottom line is that, from time to time, you will fail. And when you do, you must learn from your mistakes. If you keep trying to avoid failures, you’ll never discover your true capabilities.
“The grass isn’t greener on the other side, the grass is greener where you water it.” If you keep jumping from one project to another without getting results, what makes you think you will succeed this time? Often, all you need is to do is stay on your plot and keep watering your grass.
Everything of value requires time and effort and, more importantly, the proper mindset and approach. As you change your mindset and avoid the five pitfalls mentioned above, you’ll discover that everything will change for you in the long term. Remember, if others can lose weight, build a successful business or design their dream career, so can you. “If others can, I can.” This is the mantra I’ve been telling myself for the past few years. Now, success might not happen as quickly as you would like it to. It might require more time and effort than you initially imagined, and you might not always feel motivated but, with determination and patience, you can make it happen.
To succeed over the longer term, you need to identify the right course of action for you and stick to it, while discarding everything else — at least for the time being. Then, you must trust the method, course or approach you chose. Otherwise, you risk looking for the next revolutionary thing and end up jumping from one promising method to another. And, as discussed, we know this type of behavior only leads to poor results.
Have you ever wondered why two people can receive the same exact information, and one becomes very successful while the other fails to obtain positive results? This is because one has a clear strategy based on solid foundations, while the other doesn’t.
As a rule of thumb, the higher the level of success you want to reach, the higher the quality of the information you consume must be. Do you think the most successful people on earth spend their day reading blogs and articles to find solutions to their problems? No. They work with the best coaches in the world, join mastermind groups and have mentors. This is because they understand the hierarchy of information and value high-quality information above all.
What exactly I am trying to achieve? Without a clear strategy and a specific goal, it’s impossible to identify the information you actually need. So, what results are you trying to obtain and what information do you need to get there? 2) Has anyone I know achieved this goal? Does anyone I know have the right information or know someone who does? If you know anyone who can help you, start there. It will save you the hassle of looking for the right information and prevent you from wasting time. Before looking for information on my own, I always try to think of people who can help me. By doing so, I’m more likely to access the right information and, as a result, learn more effectively. 3) To achieve the results I want, who can I pay to help me find the information I need? Successful people don’t spend hours looking for free tutorials or articles, they hire experts or buy the best step-by-step course available. They simply don’t have the time to put pieces of the puzzle together from multiple sources of information.
On the other hand, people who struggle with their goals often spend hours trying to obtain free information. Not only do they waste time in the process, they also become overwhelmed and heavily confused. As a result, they lose momentum and start doubting their ability to achieve their goals. In truth, there is no such thing as “free” information. So-called free information comes at a cost, such as:
Time wasting, Confusion, The risk of becoming overwhelmed, Having to wade through low-quality information, The absence of commitment, and so on. You might argue that you cannot afford to hire a coach or buy a course, and I get that. However, you need to understand how successful people think. For them, time is their most important asset.
Last thing they want to do is to reinvent the wheel and try to figure out everything for themselves. That would be silly. They actually want to shorten their learning curve so they can travel from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible. And to do so, they need access to the best information available. Which of the following two options do you prefer? Working directly with a world-class expert in the field you’re studying (or buying their course), or Spending months or years trying to figure things out on your own?
I invite you to invest in yourself, even if it’s a real financial stretch — and it should be. I’ve never seen successful people who have failed to invest in their own education. In fact, one of the teachers I had in business school spent tens of thousands of dollars on her education every year, and she was already hugely successful and knowledgeable in her field.
3) Avoid buying anything on the spot I believe we should absolutely avoid making an immediate decision and give ourselves at least one day to think the purchase through. This is especially true for expensive products or services. Consequently, don’t rush into buying anything. Instead, ask yourself whether the product is really what you need now and whether buying it is the best current use of your money and time.
Since wealthy people value their time tremendously, you’ll find they are willing to pay more to buy it back. On the other hand, people who struggle financially often attach less value to their time. As a result, some of them will waste hours standing in line just to save a few bucks on a product. Do you know how much an hour of your time is worth?
Remember, each second you spend being unfocused is gone forever. At any given time, you’re either focused or you aren’t.
A. The five key beliefs of masters The main reasons some people achieve results while others fail is related to their beliefs. What you believe, dictates the actions you take and, therefore, the results you obtain. People with a mastery mindset tend to hold the following beliefs: 1) If he can, I can. They assume that if someone else can achieve something, they can too. If others
can make money online, lose weight or design a career they love, they can too. They will not stop trying until they find a way to obtain the results they want. 2) I can always improve. They understand they can always get better. Instead of thinking, “I’m not good enough,” they think, “I’m not good enough yet.” They know that, if they keep working on themselves and on their craft, improvement is inevitable. 3) I can learn anything I want. They know that, if they want to reach their goals, they can learn anything they need. 4) If I don’t live it, I don’t know it. They understand they can only really learn by doing. Instead of passively consuming information, they keep practicing over and over until they achieve the desired results. 5) If I do something once, I can do it a million times. They realize that if they can do something just one time, they can do it over and over. For instance, if they can make their first dollar online, they can make $100, $10,000 and perhaps even $1,000,000. If they find one coaching client, they can find ten or twenty more. If they summon the courage to deliver their first speech, they can deliver another and another. Thus, all they need is to push themselves enough to be able to do something once and trust they can repeat the process.
Remember, it is impossible to truly know something if you’re not embodying it in your life. Therefore, if you believe you know something but fail to see any results, you must work on developing a mastery mindset until you achieve actual tangible results.
