Joy of Focus

 

    The way you think directs the way you feel.  How you feel influences the way you behave.  The accumulation of all of this makes up the conditions of your life.  That means that you life is based on your choices.  The good news is that you can focus and pray in on what you want and change things that you don't like.

    Focus helps you become a keen observer.  It gives you the ability to analyze the world around you.  Indirectly, this can bring you joy because you start seeing the changes in your life.  How you think and focus your attention will bring you joy or misery.

    Focus requires the learned skill set of mental discipline.  It requires continuous work.  If you slack off, then you will have to start over in some areas.  It is like working out: 30 days of not strength training and your muscles start to go back to their lazier state.  The same goes for mental discipline.  If you slack, then your emotions will start controlling you instead of you controlling your emotions.

    Mental discipline helps make goals and focus a reality.  Without it, you struggle with simple things and your moods become unpredictable even for you.  However, if you work it then you upgrade your life to more potential in every area.  

    Focus cultivates clarity.  Clarity makes the path clear in front of you for a distance.  It is what makes your goals achievable.  Focus also improves concentration.  Concentration helps you stay in the current moment to take care of the right now priority.  Multitasking is the enemy of concentration.  You can focus on one area and complete it quickly, write out what else needs to be done, prioritize, and then knock out the rest.  It may look like multitasking, but it isn't. It is concentration that allows you to get more done.

    Focus allows confidence.  Confidence is important because it enables to you accomplish your goals.  Without confidence you spend all your energy on the what if game and go back and forth through different scenarios never accomplishing anything useful.  Self-confidence enables you to be prepared, have winning moments, hold onto positive memories, and focus on the stages of progress instead of perfection.

    The final things that focus does for you is challenge you.  It pushes you to not be stagnant.  You set achievable goals, but that does not mean that the goals keep you in your comfort zone.  You do not avoid the uncomfortable to stay safe.  You set high standards for yourself and you work to make them happen.  This is how you find treasures in your life.  

Proverbs 16:7-9, Philippians 4:4-9, Colossians 3:1-4, Hebrews 12:1-4, & James 1:2-4