We live in a fast-moving world with constant change and development in many aspects of life such as education, communication, transportation, health, security and more.
Indeed, an advancement in science and new technological discoveries have led to major breakthroughs in several facets of life, thereby making life easy, cheap, fast and better for us.
The question now is: can we still integrate the deep values of focus, discipline, and willpower with the changes that advancement in technology brings to our society?
Truly, to deny the immense benefits derived from notable world innovations is sheer blindness; however, to also deny the fact of how much laziness it has brought to our generation is utter negligence.
It’s therefore needful that we rise to the call and rekindle the principles of hard work and discipline in our generation.
I would be expounding on “Focus” as a tool to ending lethargy, and rejuvenating a culture of diligence for a successful generation.
What Does Focus Mean?
Focus is the ability to set one’s mind and attention on a particular course until it yields the desired results. It involves channeling all your energy and concentration into a specific task, either long-term or short-term, and remaining in that state till the task is accomplished.
Focus requires a whole lot of commitment to one’s goal, because there are many things that may tend to sway one from that course; nevertheless, focus overcomes all these odds.
Today, we have many examples of people who kept their focus and left indelible imprints on the hearts of men.
The reason life has become a better place for all of us today is because someone at some time persisted in their research work, despite the many failures and setbacks. As an example, Thomas Edison, who invented the electric bulb had 1,000 failed attempts.
What do you think might have happened if he had given up say at the 3rd attempt or probably the 999th attempt? He was focused and saw all those failures as steps to reaching his goals.
In our society today, we have too many people who are distracted by various things.
For some, it is the comfort and the ease they enjoy that distracts them.
For some others, it is the pressure of life’s demands – food, clothing, money, family, societal expectations etc. – that distracts them, while for some others, they are not so knowledgeable about living purposefully, hence, they live quite directionless lives.
People have focused on their goals in the past, and discovered and developed things that are useful to us today. We ought to be responsible enough to rise to the call, not for our sakes only, but for the sakes of those coming after us, the unborn generations.
Although distractions are a part of our daily lives as individuals, we still must learn to keep our eyes on the goal.
Indeed, many of the distractions we encounter are very legal. For example, it is legal and right to get married, to surf the web and read contents from it, check emails, connect with family and friends on social media.
None of these is bad in itself; but the reality is spending much time on all these is tantamount to heating water with an uncovered pot – all the water particles will escape into the air. In other words, we’re wasting our lives, our relevance, slowly but definitely.
How to Have Focus
Now, let us do a quick analysis on some of these facts and see how it can help.
- An average person sleeps for 6 hours each day. Assuming you spend 2 hours surfing the internet, 2 hours connecting with friends and family on social media, probably 1 hour checking emails, you may spend some hours taking care of your children and family if you are married, there’s also an amount of time used in doing some regular basic things like cooking, bathing, washing, cleaning and other sundry things.
- You would discover that you would have spent about 16 hours out of the 24 hours in a day. Clearly, such a person would have only 8 hours to themselves. Things would be worse if you are an employee; it would imply that there’s no time for personal development, no time to set goals and reach it, no time to really develop and build real success.
In this paragraph and the following ones, I would attempt to give tips on how to remain focused, as well as how to do away with distractions.
One major source of distractions which has gained much attention and comments all over the world is the use of mobile phones, especially at work. According to peoplehr.com, employees waste around five hours per week ‘goofing off’ on their mobile phone at the workplace.
This is quite shady in the sense that mobile phones are very useful; in fact, for some, it is an extension of their lives.
Nearly all kinds of programs – educative, informative, entertaining, analytics and other tools – are now supported on mobile phones.
For example, a person at work, may need to quickly use a calculator, look up a word in the dictionary, set an alarm or a reminder for a particular meeting etc and mobile phones can help with this.
However, we can’t shy away from the fact that it could also be a great source of distraction. How would you handle receiving email notifications every 10 minutes? You most likely would spend the whole day checking emails!
There are many other ways it brings distraction, although, it is a very useful tool. The onus is now on us to be responsible and discipline while using our mobile phones.
Furthermore, to be able to stay focused, you should not be afraid of starting small. Get little assignments done properly and on time, you would soon be motivated to handle bigger ones with much zeal.
Here’s a simple tip for you: write a list of what you want to get done, set a time for it, and be committed to keeping it every day. For example, if I want to write a book, I could decide to write 4 pages per day and separate a time for it.
During a period as this, try to shut yourself from distractions: cut off email notifications, social media notifications, ensure the environment is clean and quiet too, and immerse yourself into the thoughts of what you want to get done.
This will help you despise discomfort, initial failures and distractions, and keep you on track in reaching your goal.
Conclusively, no go-getter is a distracted fellow.
Focused people always have a clear picture of their goals in their head. They always want to put other things for later and face squarely, what is before them. That is FOCUS! Putting your mind on nothing else than what matters at that point.
Finally, I would like to share a quote I came across when reading a publication:
“Don’t wait to be motivated, given incentives, urged, prodded or even threatened into action before you get your job done. Always take the initiative, be self motivated, be resourceful and have all the drive and passion to accomplish your tasks.”
“Success is limitless when Focus is the driver. Never take your mind off your dreams! Never allow setbacks to derail you! Spend your time wisely, don’t waste it on superfluities. Plan your day well, set realistic goals and keep to them. Again I say, “Success is limitless when Focus is the driver.”