What’s your intention? It’s worth evaluating. I have been taking a long look at the ‘whys’ of my business and my lifestyle recently to make sure that what I am doing is in line with what I originally intended to do. You know how you start a journey and then the opportunistic piece of you sees a chance for this or that popping up and suddenly you’ve lost your focus on the initial intention and now your off in the weeds chasing these extras that actually aren’t in line with those original ideas? This happens to me all the time. I lose my laser beam focus and it becomes more of an unmanned fire hose stretched just a little left of the actual blaze. Some of the water may end up on the fire but most of the effort, energy, time and resources were carelessly wasted. The only upside to this is that the neighbor’s car is washed and his flowers got watered. I didn’t really do my own self any favors though.
As fall approaches, I want to make sure that I am keeping sight of the reasons for the choices that I make. Am I making decisions that are truly in line with the mission of my business and my life’s ambitions? Are you remaining focused on your own initial intentions or are you lost in the weeds chasing shiny distractions?
Here’s a practical way that I determine whether something is worth pursuing. I wrote my top three personal and business priorities on two post-it notes and stuck one inside my laptop and one in my appointment book (don’t judge – I like not having a device to glance at for scheduling). Now every time I sit down to work on my laptop or schedule an appointment, I can compare those commitments to my priorities. Two simple post-it notes keep me focused on the things that are important. A cheap fix to what can be an expensive problem.
Left unsolved, a lack of focus can and has caused the demise of many great business ideas and the people behind them, even though they had the best of intentions.