FOCUS

During my stint with NRS Motivators… I have vivid memories of a conversation, I, had with a young student trying to find his goals. The session was organized in one of the tuition class.  I was introduced to the students as a ‘motivational speaker’ and I was expected to deliver a lecture on ‘Goal setting and achieving’. As soon as my lavish introduction got over, a curious student asked “ With due respect  Ma’am, I have attended some sessions on goal setting, so I know how to set a goal but  when it comes to achieving those, all these topics seems unrealistic to me, I would appreciate, if you tell us how to achieve goals?”

With a smile, I asked him “what is your goal?” “I want to become a very renowned ‘chef’ from ‘Switzerland University.’ He smiled with a smirk. I asked him to repeat the same and he simply said.. what he said earlier. “OK, so what’s the problem in achieving it?” I asked. He replied “getting admission there is impossible as the course is too expensive, which makes me think twice.” “I smiled and asked what exactly is your goal my dear?” he got puzzled and uncomfortable with my repeated question and this time with an in confident tone he repeated. “I calmly asked him the next question; you want to become a ‘chef’? Or you want to become chef only by getting ‘admitted’ in ‘Switzerland University’? There was a stoic silence on his face so I explained “It is very necessary to zero on to exactly what you want from your life, Your goal is to become a ‘chef’ or become a chef from ‘Switzerland university’ is? You need to mentally clear about your set goal. It is very well said “you receive what you first conceive in your mind” and if your thought is not focused your mind won’t know what exactly it has to attract, and when the mind itself is confused, how shall you achieve your goal? (Think!) Beta in your case the obstacle is, getting admission; however your focus should be of becoming a chef from any Institute because you are passionate about it.

Our focus should be on the solution not on the problem. When our focus is on the problems we land up getting more entangled in it which leads to energy drain. However when we focus on solution, we start feeling more energetic and as a result we see manifestation of our cherished goals.

“Let me give you a riddle that will cater to your question. Imagine that you are lost in the woods on a wintry night. You desperately needed to stay warm. All you have in your bag is a letter that your best friend sent you, a diet coke cane, a magnifying glass. You managed to find some dry kindling woods but unfortunately you do not have matches.  How would you light the fire?”  He thought for some time and said “I have no idea what the answer is. I give up.”  I answered “it’s simple. Place the letter among the dry wood and hold the magnifying glass over it. The rays of the sun will be focused so as to ignite the fire within a matter of seconds.” “And what about the diet coke cane?” he asked. “Oh! That was just to distract you from the obvious solution.” I replied with a smile. “But the essence of the example is: putting the letter over the dry wood would produce no result, yet, the second you use the magnifying glass to concentrate the scattered rays of the sun on to the letter, and it will ignite. 

This analogy holds true for the mind. When you concentrate your tremendous power on definite and meaningful objectives, you will quickly produce startling results.”

(The example quoted has been referred from the book ‘monk who sold his Ferrari’