If you struggle to lead yourself, you will struggle to lead others.
Leading yourself begins with INTENTIONAL FOCUS.
Why is intentional focus so critical for us as leaders?
Zig Ziglar captures it best:
“I don’t care how much power, brilliance, or energy you have, if you don’t harness it and focus it on a specific target, and hold it there, you’re never going to accomplish as much as your ability warrants.” --Zig Ziglar
Without the ability to harness our focus, we will never accomplish as much as our ability warrants.
And as leaders, we face constant demands for our focus. As James Clear writes:
You will continually be pulled off course or asked to put out a fire created by someone else. People will disrespect your time and steal your attention—usually with no intention of malice, but simply because different people have different priorities…
Everyone gets distracted. In many ways, the real divide is between those who get back on track quickly and those who let interruptions expand into longer periods of inactivity.
Top performers get back on track faster than most. This is the skill to develop. –James Clear
So as leaders, we want to be proactive, not reactive.
Here is a quick quiz to measure your reactiveness vs proactiveness:
When you wake up, what are the first 20 minutes of your morning like?
This is training your focus to REACT.
What if you could develop the skill of starting your day proactively, spending time meditating on truths, reading scripture, working out, praying about your day, or walking through affirmations of what you know is true?
See how one sets your day on a path to react, and one sets your day on a path to focus?
Reactive leaders allow the urgency of the moment, the full inbox, or the demands of others to drive their day. They are busy, busy, busy, but are they effective?
Proactive leaders know their mission. They are clear on what it means to win at what God is calling them to do, and they intentionally steward their focus on who and what matters most for them to accomplish their job.
In the same way, leaders create a daily budget for their mind, called their FOCUS. It is you deciding ahead of time where you and God decided your focus ought to be.
And daily reviewing and praying over this list is how you get proactive with your focus. It is how you get intentional.
If we are not intentional with our minds, we will give our focus away to whatever demands its attention.–Thomas Thompson
One way I do this is I have created a Daily Focus Tool, called “Chasing the Antelope.” Check out the concept behind the name here. Here is one I used for a season:
Coupled with my morning workout, my time of devotion and prayer, and a strong cup of coffee, this sheet powers my morning and resets my mind towards where I want to intentionally focus it. I spend about 20 minutes using this sheet to tell my mind where I want it to go for the day.
This is MY sheet. What would YOURS look like?
Action Step: Decide what questions, affirmations, or antelopes you want to chase and create your own Daily Focus sheet. Use it for 30 days and pay attention to how intentional focus kickstarts your day.
I'd love to talk with you more about that. Shoot me an email and let's begin kickstarting your day with focus.
Photo by Fabio Spinelli on Unsplash
