Focus
Ok, I will admit it.
I am probably watching far too many shows on Netflix.
But please don't judge me. This pandemic has provided many of us with the unique opportunity to indulge our binge-watching, ice-cream eating, stay-all-day in your pajama proclivities.
I am guilty as charged.
But alas, all has not been lost. Since I prefer documentaries, I have learned alot about a lot.
In my opinion, one of the best docs on Netflix is called "The Playbook." Produced by Lebron James and Mac Carter, it profiles five legendary coaches about their approach to life and sport. One episode features Doc Rivers, the (recently hired) Head Coach of the Philadelphia 76ers (and recently fired coach of the Los Angeles Clippers), who shares four principles that have informed and undergirded his success. One of them is absolutely arresting.
Doc says he believes that pressure is a privilege. When he was first hired as coach of the Boston Celtics (where he won his first NBA Championship), Rivers said that he went into the arena where the team plays. When he saw all of the championship banners hanging from the rafters (the Celtics have won 17 NBA Championships, the most of any team), he immediately felt the pressure to perform. How he responded to the pressure is instructive.
Instead of allowing the pressure to discourage, depress or intimidate him, he allowed it to motivate him and inspire his team. Doc had a spotlight installed. The spotlight was beamed on the empty wall beside the last championship banner that the Celtics had won. He then directed the maintenance department not to turn the spotlight off until they won another championship. Finally, he asked his players to look at the empty wall during every practice and every game to remind them of what they had not accomplished!
Wow.
What was Rivers doing? He was doing more than just running up the team's light bill. He was providing the team with focus. Filling that empty wall with another banner became the team's rallying cry, their motivation, and their goal. It eliminated confusion and competing aims. It provided direction and inspiration.
Here's a question: where is your spotlight pointed? Here's a better question: do you even have a spotlight?
Without focus, we waste time, energy and resources. Without focus, we expend precious resources on a plethora of insignificant objectives and lesser aims. The result is unhappiness, frustration, boredom, and envy. Towards the end of his life, the Apostle Paul shared the amazing secret behind his legacy of impact. Were you to ask Paul how he traveled to all of the places he did, write all of the letters he did, and touch all of the lives that he did, he would answer:
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14)
Paul did not live in a slipshod, haphazard fashion. He was deliberate. Intentional. Focused. And look at the results!
To achieve focus, John Maxwell suggests that we ask ourselves three questions:
What activities am I required to do?
What activities give me the most return?
What activities give me the most reward?
These questions will help you filter your actions, establish your priorities, and determine where to shine your spotlight.
So go ahead. Find your focus. It's the only way to win.