Characteristics Of A Entrepreneur

Jon continued to work on sticking to his schedule and reducing distractions. Focusing in three-hour chunks of time was mentally manageable for him, especially because he realized he had a "reward" in the form of a break waiting on the other side. Although initially he had trouble being disciplined enough to not check e-mail or occasionally surf the web for sports scores, he eventually got into the habit of devoting all of his mental energy to his design tasks, eliminating opportunities for noncritical interruptions, and willingly putting distractions aside until another time. He continued to keep his Focus Journal, making daily prioritized to-do lists, and critically examining his journal at the end of each day to determine how to better refine his time.

 

Within six weeks, he was more focused, productive, and satisfied with his performance. He had successfully designed several heat exchangers before their due dates, and he was able to take on additional design responsibilities because of his now-habitual efficiencies. His manager was extremely pleased with his productivity and urged others in the organization to follow Jon's example.

 

Rung #4 on the Effectiveness Ladder is not so much an action step as it is a point of arrival. You arrive when you are able to execute your newfound focusing skills with little conscious effort: As mentioned previously, it's second nature to you now. It's like taking the training wheels off a bicycle and riding it without effort or conscious thought. When you are able to execute your effectiveness, you will have become a focused person.

 

Everything you can control about your life happens as a result of your habits, which are the behaviors that define your personality, your relationships, and your effectiveness. The truth is that your success (or failure) is created by your habits, and to get superior results faster, you have to continue to acquire new habits. Improving your focus skills is no different – focus has to become an exceptional new habit for you.

 

It is very important that you understand that focus is a skill, and skills are the result of habitual action. I say this because acquiring good habits gives your life stability and a sense of peace, for habits make it possible to predict results. Most of us want to be in control of our lives and our future, and we try lots of things to help us achieve that control. We try to get better control through improved filing systems, a more advanced piece of software, a more capable cell phone, and many other things. Most of these aids do help, but we should approach the control issue from the perspective of creating new habits.

 

We've discussed the strategic importance of your belief window and how the things you believe drive the action you take and the results you get. Another way of understanding that is to see that your belief window is also the basis for your habits, which largely control what you say and do. If it's true to say, "If you keep doing the same things over and over again, you will keep getting the same results," then results are predictable. This quote is usually made in a negative sense about negative habits, but it is also true about positive habits. If results are predictable, you have the ability to control your future, and more control over your future contributes to peace of mind and happiness.  

 

With respect to focus, four strategic facts and characteristics about your behavior will confirm your ability to execute and focus at a higher level. Let's take a look at those four characteristics, listed below.

 

Four Positive Characteristics of the Ability to Focus

 

1. Fewer distractions:

You will have become acutely aware of distractions in real time, as they barge into your mind and your life. As a result, you will be less vulnerable to things that can lure you into time-wasting activities. The key to eliminating distractions is the ability to recognize them. When you have reached this stage of effectiveness, you will intuitively know what distractions look, taste, feel, and smell like! The moment a potential distraction rears its ugly head, you will be able to recoil from it and set it aside in your mind.

 

2. More high-leverage activities:

You will be intimately aware of the activities for which you need to allocate most of your time and effort. This awareness will help you delegate or ignore tasks and time-eating activities that have minimal impact on achieving superior results. Your priority selection will be greatly enhanced, which means you will be more effective at keeping the focus on the main things.

 

3. On-time performance:

Succss and achievement require the ability to achieve predetermined objectives within established time frames, and this ability will increase tremendously as your focusing skills are elevated. You will rarely fail to complete tasks and projects on time. Instead, you will complete your daily to-do lists, rather than carry them over into subsequent days.

 

4. Increased productivity:

With fewer distractions, you will be able to get more done because you will have achieved more effective use of your time. You will add lots of extra minutes to every day. I read a handbook several years ago called Finding 100 Extra Minutes a Day, and it taught us that level of increased time is possible for just about anyone. You can expect that level of extra time as a result of improving your focusing skills. Finding 100 extra minutes each work day amounts to almost 450 hours a year.

That's the equivalent of adding almost three weeks of time to each year, which could represent more time to be productive and more time to spend with your family.

 

No single skill or habit has a more powerful impact on results than the ability to eliminate distractions and focus on the high-leverage activities that have the greatest potential to advance your strategic goals and-objectives. When your ability to do that becomes a habit, your entire life will change, and the results you achieve will be Strategically Accelerated.

 

Knowing what to reduce or eliminate, however, is just one part of the process. You also have to know what tasks are important to retain. Now that you know how to better focus, you're ready for the next post, which will explain how to identify the high-leverage activities upon which you should concentrate. Before that, you can check out Characteristics Of A Entrepreneur.

 

 

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