“And the Word for the Year is ‘Focus’”
I got off to a bit of a rough start in this day and this New Year.
I couldn’t find my keys for a while, and then I discovered them in the door where I had left them, when my sweetheart and I came home last night. (Security is so important to me!)
Then, it took me three attempts to send out the daily challenges to some of my students who meet with me once a week to read the Old Testament in Hebrew. You want to hear the details, you say? No, you probably don’t, but I’ll tell you anyway. After some preliminary words in the e mail, I forgot to paste the challenges in the e mail before I hit the send button. I quickly realized the error of my ways, and prepared to send another e mail with the challenges. I was typing an explanation as to why I hadn’t sent them the first time when I accidentally sent the e mail—without the challenges. Finally, on the third time, I succeeded in sending the challenges. Sending challenges proved to be quite a challenge.
Here is the irony of the situation. Jon Gordon encourages his readers to come up with one word to set the tone for their year. (See http://www.jongordon.com/blog/one-word-that-will-change-your-life-2/.) It sounded like a good idea.
It took me a while, but I finally settled on the word “FOCUS.” Perhaps focusing on focus sounded good to me because I struggle so much with staying focused on the things that really matter: my relationship with God, my devotion to my wife, being good to others and myself, using my gifts properly.
So, how do I plan to be focused? Well, dear readers, I am open to suggestions. But here are some things that help me stay better focused. At least they help when I remember to practice them.
- Gratitude helps me to focus on what is important. When I focus on being grateful, I tend to be more focused on what really matters to me. Furthermore, I am more likely to be on the lookout for important things to be grateful for. Sometimes, those important things can seem little, but they often turn out to be little components of very large and important things.
- Accountability to and with friends helps me to stay focused on what really matters. Of course, my friends themselves matter. But they also help me to realize what other things I need to focus on.
- Slowing down helps me to realize what is truly focus on. If I let my life become a blur, I can’t really focus on much of anything. However, I am responsible for my own blurry living.
- While they are often despised, I find to-be-and-to-do lists helpful. I write things down, but then I need to take another step. I need to pray and ask God what God wants me to do. Otherwise, I may be wasting my time focusing on things that aren’t really worth the bother.
One final thought: Focus is a choice. I have Attention Deficit Disorder, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t focus, only that it may be more difficult for me to focus.
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