WHAT YOU FOCUS ON GROWS. You create your future by what you see.

What you focus on will grow in your life. You will end up having more of it. As you focus on your desires, you will typically end up making progress in that direction, obtaining more results in that regard. The same applies to you problems. By constantly focusing on them will allow them to grow and become more prominent in your life than your opportunities.

I once did an advance motorcycle driving course. One aspect that left a lasting impression on me was the driving tip that we discussed relating to dealing instinctively with imminent dangerous situations. The scenario that was sketched to us was as follow: You come around a blind bend in the road at a moderate speed only to discover that there is a stationary truck in your lane with an oncoming vehicle obscuring the other lane. Research apparently indicated that the majority of people ended up staring at either one of the two obstacles, and typically ended up hitting the one they were focused on, be it the oncoming vehicle or the stationary truck. At this driving course, we were taught to condition yourself to focus on you possible escape routes, be it the shoulder of the road on the outside of the truck or the gap between the truck and the oncoming traffic. It was found that people that conditioned themselves for such instinctive behavior had an 80% change of escaping through that gap. This is a very profound illustration of the principle that what you focus on, grow into your reality, be it good or bad. A conditioning of the mind is therefore required where you train yourself to focus on your solutions or opportunities before you end up being so impressed by your obstacles that you cannot see your opportunities properly.

What you focus on grow. The majority of people define their future aspirations based on their current constrains. It is almost like looking at your destination from behind a palisade fence. You fail to fully appreciate the entire picture for as long as you stare yourself blind at the fence. It is like limiting your projects or goals to your current financial capabilities (one member of the fence), your current skills (another member of the fence), your current level of experience (yet another piece of the fence), your current access to resources like expert advice or consultation, … And so the picture is getting more and more obscured behind the fence which take up all the focus. This is essentially limiting your future growth based on your past abilities. There is hardly any growth/progress since it is confined to your existing capacity. You are like a driver speeding down the road towards your future by primarily staring yourself blind at the rear-view mirror.

Now don’t get me wrong. I am not advocating that you should ignore certain practicalities in life. The point is this; you must first define your goal. Do so based on your aspirations before you do so based on your current capabilities, less you will discount all your growth potential to become nothing but a repeat of the past. Then, once you have defined your future vision, based on your aspirations, you identify each obstacle or constraint and proceed to find a solution or work-around for them individually. All top achievers are faced with practical constraints, but they manage to navigate around them. They remain focused on their escape routes, not allowing themselves to get wiped out by staring themselves blind at their obstacles.

What circumstances have you permitted to steel your focus?