The Power of Focus: How to Hit Your Business, Personal and Financial Targets with Absolute Confidence and Certainty, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Les Hewitt (Deerfield Beach: Health Communications, 2000)
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The Power of Focus Synopsis
In The Power of Focus, authors Jack Canfield et al. teaches readers how to tackle the three common pressures that working-class individuals face: time pressure, financial pressure, and work-life balance. Mastering these three areas can enable individual success. Below are the key highlights from the book.
Key Idea #1 – Importance of Habits
As Aristotle once said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit.” Thus, for those of us who are looking to develop excellence in their lives, building good habits is crucial. To develop a habit, one must adopt a “no exceptions” policy. This means maintaining dedication to a habit and leaving no room for excuses. Additionally, habits take time to develop. It is reported that it can take anywhere from 3 to 4 weeks to see real change. Therefore, individuals will need to commit to at least that duration of time in order to cultivate a true habit. Finally, it is also important to ensure that one is adopting good habits rather than bad ones. To do this, identify the habits of successful individuals. From here, break down their behaviours to understand how you too can adopt such behaviours.
Key Idea #2 – Focus, focus, focus
As the title of the book suggests, focus is what elevates an individual to higher performance. Successful people know their strengths and invest their time and energy into cultivating it. They also leverage the power of diversity by surrounding themselves with different types of people.
Recognize your personal strengths and what you bring to the table. Backfill the areas where you may not be as strong by surrounding yourself with those who are brilliant. They can help make up for the areas you lack. As a result, you will be able to achieve more as a team by leaning on one another’s capabilities and skills.
Key Idea #3 – Balance
In addition to building a habit of focus, work-life balance is also important. Being aware of the balance needed between these two areas in your life will allow you to pay sufficient attention to each. The authors propose a B-Alert strategy for achieving a balanced lifestyle. The strategy is as follows:
- End your evenings with a Blueprint of what you want to achieve the next day.
- When working towards your goals, Action the important activities that will help you accomplish them within the next two months.
- Be Learning at every opportunity.
- Exercise for 30 minutes a day.
- Take time to Relax with friends and family.
- Take time to Think and reflect.
Key Idea #4 – Quality Relationships Matter
The types of relationships that you surround yourself with matter. This is because they are valuable for opening doors to new opportunities. Furthermore, good relationships are known to increase one’s satisfaction with their life. Positive relationships can have an upward spiral effect, emanating success. Negative and toxic relationships can have the exact opposite effect. Furthermore, negative relationships are mentally and emotionally draining, leaving you little capacity for the relationships that matter. Surround yourself with people you like and respect.
Key Idea #5 – Be Decisive in Your Actions
Being intentional and decisive in your actions is important to help you achieve your goals. Procrastination is usually a symptom of boredom, loss of confidence, and or laziness. It is also a symptom of being overwhelmed. By being decisive, one can overcome some of these factors that can lead to complacency. Be clear with what you want and ask people for what you want with confidence and sincerity.
Key Takeaways
- To overcome the three common pressures in life, individuals must learn how to develop habits of focus.
- Apply the B-Alert strategy to ensure work-life balance.
- The quality of your relationships matter; thus take the time to invest in the ones that positively contribute to your life and leave behind the ones that do not.
The Power of Focus Authors: Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Les Hewitt
Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen are authors and entrepreneur turned motivational speakers. They are cofounders of the popular billion-dollar book brand, Chicken Soup for the Soul, which was a New York Times bestseller in the 90s. Canfield now spends his time helping others reach their personal fulfillment and success through speaking engagements and training.
Les Hewitt is a sales leader turned author. He brings over 30 years of experience to his current career, the founder of The Focus Coach. Hewitt provides workshops and training programs for sales leaders who want to optimize their business.
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