Shining the Light

I’ve been trying to focus this year on the areas that I need to see immediate improvement in order to be successful in my work.

But here’s the trouble … there are SO MANY areas that need focus! Now, I know I’m not telling you anything, and I know that is what you experience day by day, hour by hour. MY trouble (and I imagine a bit of yours as well) is that because there are SO MANY areas to focus on, I go from one thing to another, never really giving the first area my full attention. Or if I do give it my full attention in the first place, not giving it the attention it needs in following up to ensure what I put in place is actually working.

Sound familiar?

If not, you should probably give me a call and talk me through some pointers on time management and focus : )

If so, keep reading my thoughts for today …

We shine spotlights on things that need attention on stage, right? It’s the same for us … we shine flashlights on things we need to see better. I shine a flashlight when I need to find something under my bed, or when I need to see behind a shelf to plug something in, or even, with my aging eyes, when I need to read sometime more carefully and see it better. I even shine a light on my thermostat when I was to make sure I know what the temperature setting.

We can shine lights on areas of our business that we need to see better …. That we need to focus on and find solutions or just areas that we need to monitor. And the bigger the light … the bigger the focus … the more attention we give to that area, right?

Here’s the thing though … I (and you, I would guess) have three or 4 flashlights we are holding on to, trying to shine on different areas and balancing all at the same time. What happens then? Well, the beams are diluted and erratic … flashing around all over the place, and not really hitting (or at least not for very long) those areas we really need to see clearly.

Think about holding all 4 of those flashlights so that they all shine on the same thing … the same place. The light … the focus … is so much brighter, so much stronger. It’s still a little hard to hang on to all of those lights and shine them on a singular spot yourself though, isn’t it? What if you gave 3 of those flashlights to 3 of your team members, and all 4 of you shined your light on the same place … the same thing? (Remember, you’re supposed to be actually picturing this in your head : )

Each of your lights would add to the brightness of the focus area, AND each of your lights would be coming at the same place with a slightly different perspective. Huh …. THAT is an interesting thought, isn’t it?

For your Focus next week, I encourage you to think about what ONE area of focus in your work (or your home) would have the biggest impact on overall success if it were improved … if you shined a light on it and kept that light shining. I’m sure there would be a difference in that area if you kept your light focused on that area AND I’m even more sure there would be an even greater difference if you gave every one of your key team members a flashlight and pointed them toward that same area of focus all together.

Just think of how bright that light would be … how focused your team would be on that one area. Working as a team, if one of you have to take your flashlight beam and shine in in another area for a time, the others still remain focused and can make sure that biggest impact area keeps moving forward … keeps improving your team or your business.

You know where your area of focus needs to be …. Get your own flashlight out and go hand out some flashlights to your team and shine those lights!