FOCUS, what does that mean? We hear it when we’re in school, we hear it
when we’re competing, when we’re driving when we’re in a relationship. But when
we analyze the word, what does it mean?
Webster’s Dictionary defines it these ways:
Focus is the center of
interest or activity, the state or quality of having or producing clear visual
definition or adapt to the prevailing level of light and become able to see
clearly.
All of these
definitions point to one thing “STAYING ON TRACK”, not leaning to the
right or to the left and to hone in on your target no matter what the
obstacle’s and keep moving toward it until you can see your destination “CLEARLY”.
Whewwww! The question is, can you do it? Can you focus on what you love,
are talented at or aspire to be despite adversity?
Think back, when we
were small children we played with our friends and pretended that we were
doctors, lawyers, painters, astronauts, store owners, hair stylist, dancers,
chefs you get my drift. The point is, when we are kids pretending, we’re
not inhibited when we’re dreaming. In
fact, we can see it as big as life itself, we see ourselves fulfilling our
dreams. You remember when you used
spoons for microphones, pots and pans to beat drums and you made mud pies and
pretended they were gourmet meals. Maybe your parents from a distance watched
while you were pretending, or they even saw the potential in you for one skill
or the other and they began grooming you from just a toddler to perfect that
skill.
You’ve seen and heard
it, “Johnny is going to be this, or Sarah is going to be that” and those
parents ate, slept and drank what Johnny or Sarah’s life goals would be.
Or maybe your upbringing was completely the opposite and your parents
were of the mindset that they wanted you to explore and try many different things.
No matter which scenario is you, once you figured out who you were and
where you wanted to go it was time to focus right? But, you woke up to “ADULTHOOD”!
Now, we’re talking
about real life. No dress rehearsal, the real deal, bills, relationships,
if you’re a single parent there’s the kids, if you’re a two-parent household
there’s the kids and everyone’s just plain old trying to make it! I GET
IT!!!!! But, yes there is always a but. If you give up on you, how
can you help hold any of those other things together?
Let’s just FOCUS
on the single parent. The one who may very well, have put his or her dreams on
hold because the kids were small and you had to hump it to do the preschool
and the day care, you had to work, try and sleep and get up the next day and do
it all over again (And you still didn’t get that “GLASS OF WINE” right!).
Okay, but now, these little
people have grown into young folks and here’s the deal do you continue to wait
to make your move until they are all the way “GROWN”? What move
you say? The move of pursuing what you know for sure that, with a TON of EFFORT, a TRUCK LOAD of BELIEF IN YOURSELF
and the SUPPORT of the rest of your village will be great for you and
them if you just do it?
OR, do you sit these young folks down in front
of you NOW and have a conversation.
Should we be afraid to
say to our kids:
“Family, I need to
discuss something with you. You know I love you more than life itself and that
I would do any and everything to make your life great. Which is why, I’ve
decided to pursue things in this direction because it will be what’s best for
us as a family. Now I’m going to need
your help because my pursuits involve hard work, and no one can do it alone,
it’s a family effort. To be honest, things could get a little hard while we’re
taking this journey but if we stick together, not give up and keep the family’s
goal in front of us we will be victorious! Do I have your support”?
A profound YES!,
our kids love it when they know they are a part of the families success!
We’re not afraid to
tell our children to focus we say it all the time but sometimes, we forget to
do it ourselves especially if things get a little rocky. We give up on
ourselves and what’s even worse is, and we’ve all been guilty of it, we let the
accomplishments of other folks cloud our thinking and cause us to get side
tracked and lose our focus.
We must trust
ourselves enough to know that with God’s help and the help of our village, we
can do what we set out to do.
We can do it. We can
write the script and we can actually see the scene play itself out but, it
takes courage, humility and strength. You’ll have to throw fear by the
way side, roll up your sleeves and “Adapt to the prevailing level of light
to be able to see clearly”!
THAT MEANS YOU MUST FOCUS!!!!
Text me back!
