In a world full of distractions, focus is a behaviour that is extremely hard to maintain for many people.

Focus is a rare commodity; with a million well-crafted distractions being thrust at you every day; every hour; every second.

When we come across someone who is focussed it is noticeable – they have a different presence about them.

Inevitably they are successful in one or more aspects of life – be it family, business, sport, or another interest.

In terms of your business or job, focus can yield some amazing outcomes – from focus comes change – and the change driven by focus is almost always for the better.

If we focus on customer service, we will see how we are currently serving our customers; including any shortcomings; and put changes in place to improve.

If we focus on inventory we’ll see that dead or ageing stock that’s weighing down our business, and take actions to improve our stock and cash situation.

If we focus on our accounts, particularly the monies owed to us, we’ll inevitably pick up the phone, to collect those outstanding monies, reduce our debtors and minimise bad debts in the future.

As we all know (if we think about it and are honest with ourselves), our ability to focus is sabotaged by all sorts of factors, both internal and external.

Social media, e-newsletters, emails, texts, that person standing in the doorway - all demand our attention and drag us this way or that if we let them.

Focus and discipline often go hand in hand.

Take 5 minutes to list 3 items you need to get done – be it family; business; or something for you.

Pick one item and focus on it today – by tonight you will have either nailed it; put a plan in place to nail it; or realised it’s not an issue.

That sense of progress and achievement will be worth it, as well as the real benefits from having focused and moved forward on the particular item you identified.

Cheers, Garrick

Reach me at garrick@garrickjackson.com