FOCUS - THE WINNERS ADVANTAGE

A scientist marvelled at how a seemingly harmless magnifying glass could create such intense heat, when the suns rays passed through its glassy surface. He asked the magnifying glass, 'How can you do what you do? You have this incredible ability of tapping into the rays of the sun. You then take those vast rays and bring them to a powerful point that burns holes in leaves and sheets of paper.' The magnifying glass replied to the scientist by saying, 'Well sir, I have learnt this one thing throughout the years. The hotter it gets, the more focussed I become.'

That is what gives the winner in life their greatest advantage.

THE HOTTER IT GETS, THE MORE FOCUSSED THE WINNER BECOMES

Winners have become tough because they have been through tough times. Winners become strong because they have replaced their weaknesses with newfound strengths. Winners appreciate what it takes to win, because they know what it is to have tasted the bitter taste of defeat and yet have risen once again. Winners have known what it is to be in the heat of battle, and yet they know that when all else seems beyond their grasp, the very worst thing that could ever happen to them would be for them to lose their focus.

However, for those who choose to lose....

DISTRACTION IS THE LOSERS COMPANION

Losers allow themselves to be moved by circumstances. They are like a ship without an anchor and are tossed to and fro by whatever storm decides to head their way. They flit from here to there and back and forth with no plan in mind, no dream in their heart and no hope of ever seeing a change in their circumstances. They are locked into a state of never ending misery.

The winner, on the other hand, no matter what is happening around him or her at the time, has deep within their heart a dream, a goal or some purpose that is far bigger than what they are presently experiencing. It provides them with clarity. It gives them the courage to push through. It guides them, leads them, directs them in the decision making process. It brings a smile in the sadness and sunshine in the storm. It allows the winner to make sense of the tragedy or the disappointment and allows them to reset themselves so that if they ever stall or become bogged down, they can go again. It can be summed up in one word, and that word is FOCUS.

A bunch of prisoners decided that they were going to break out of jail, so that they could all spend Christmas with their families. So they devised a plan. The plan was this: to construct a tunnel that would take each and every one of them under the prison wall and out to freedom. All went well in the ensuing months. The tunnel was built and none of the prison officials detected a thing. It was finally Christmas Eve and the prisoners had decided that they would break out when all was dark and quiet that night.

Unfortunately, one of the men 'lost it'. He had waited for so many years to get out of prison, that when he knew that the time was drawing near, he suddenly snapped and decided that he couldn't wait any longer. Without warning, he pushed everybody aside and raced down and through to the end of the tunnel. Before anyone could stop him, and to everyone's horror, he had pushed up and through the opening on the other side of the wall.

Now there were two immediate problems. One, it was in the middle of the day in broad daylight and two, whoever had designed the tunnel had miscalculated somewhat. The escaped prisoner was not standing in the middle of an open field, but rather in the middle of a preschool with preschool children running all around him.

But unperturbed, his excitement overflowed to the point that he cried out in a loud voice, 'I'm free, I'm free, I'm free!'

Well, this prisoner was surely a sight for sore eyes. He had dirt all over his clothes, grass sticking out of his mouth and a clump of mud stuck to the top of his head. Once again he cried at the top of his voice, 'I'm free, I'm free, I'm free!'

A little girl wandered over to where he was yelling and looked at him with a stern look that only a little girl can give. She promptly put her hands on her hips and looked straight at the man, who at that point had his mouth wide open. In a loud booming voice she responded to the prisoners cry, 'So what, I'm four!'

The moral of this little story? Whatever you do, don't lose focus.

IF YOU LOSE FOCUS YOU'LL BE BLINDED TO THE TRUTH

And what is that truth? The truth is this: that no matter what you experience in life, if you maintain a fixed focus on your dream and on the pursuit of your goals and on your destiny, you will burn a hole in whatever stands in the way of you experiencing the success that you most richly deserve.

You were born to win. In order to achieve victory, understand that there may need to be a fight to achieve it.

Focussed people see the good when others see the bad. They see the opportunity when others see disaster. They buy when others sell and sell when others buy. They watch others being carried by the tide and then swim the other way. They are winners and leaders because they live not by circumstance but by their inward focus. This is what sets them apart from the masses and it is this that others admire and at times misunderstand the most.

Motivational Memo for the Week: A blind man with focus can see better than a man with perfect sight, but yet has no vision.

Copyright: Peter Sinclair, 2001
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