Knowing the Importance

We know focus is the key to success, but what is the cause of focus? What makes focus successful? In order to dissect these important equations, it is important we break down the dependencies and understand them. Keeping things simple usually works well; and it is refreshing how the cause of focus comes down some very simple messages, which can lead to very powerful results, not just immediately, but even more so in the longer run.

Knowing the importance

Action requires and impetus to act. At 16.30 on Tuesday we got a warning message to go home as soon as possible due to a typhoon in the area. People left their work like I had never seen before. Before we knew it, most people had left the floor. Within a couple of hours, I could see debris flying up in front of my apartment window; and I am on the 32^nd floor. This was serious matter. As I stood by the harbour, a tourist from New Zealand came and asked me, Are we going to be ok? Will the buildings be able to stay standing? Over 600 trees had been uprooted, over 100 people were admitted to hospital, as Cyclone Vicente, the worst in Hong Kong for 15 years bought Hong Kong to a halt. What prompted the action to leave work? It was knowing the importance of the event which was to come. We should also note that knowledge of the cyclone helped people realise the importance of the necessary action. On the journey back, I had to wait 9 trains before being able to get onto one. When the doors would open each time, within perhaps 10-15 seconds the train would be packed and would need to leave. There were small arguments, and people were really concentrating on getting on, they were positioning themselves well in advance of the train arriving; they were focused, they were determined. What prompted their determination and focus? They knew and felt the importance of getting home on time very very tangibly, and therefore their minds were fixed, and their actions were in line with their priority. Knowing the importance of what we are doing, is the single most determining factor in cultivating focus.

Choosing the right type of action

I sat down with some of my bosses last week to discuss what the key qualities for a particular role we wanted to bring in are. I specified the technical areas quite quickly, and then asked them about the non-technical factors that were most important. They said, the person needs to be able to flag things according to the “real” priority, and that “not everything should be urgent and important.” This would be the make or break of that persons success. This comes down to prioritisation and consciousness. More importantly, how do we know we’re doing the right things? There are certain tasks we conduct that are strategic, which will not yield immediate results, but results over time, and there are other tasks which are operational and will simply keep you out of trouble, with a plethora in the middle of tactical tasks. If we are not aware of this range of tasks, and cannot identify, or differentiate between them, then we effectively lose control of our success. We can learn what is strategic, what is tactical, and what is operational in a number of ways; we can find out what is strategic is by finding out what the organisations seniors want to do; what direction they want to go in, and align ourselves with this using our discrimination and intelligence sharply; not just blindly. To identify what we need to do tactically, we can often learn this from slightly more experienced peers who can offer such advice, and looking at their example, and to determine what we need to do operationally, we just need to follow the guidebook so to speak. We will notice, most of this relies on receiving knowledge from some source. Once we then break a balance between activities in those three areas, and cultivate focus through knowing their importance, we will be powerfully positioned.

Keep on-guard

If we do not keep our focus when we have more time, we will tend to waste our time, and then we will be forced to focus, which does not make for a good balance. This is very much in line with the teachings of the Vedic scriptures, where the five year old son of the King Hiranyakashipu, Sri Prahalad, was explaining to his friends that it is very important to learn the science of devotional service from a young age, and not when you are very old and dysfunctional. He had exactly that in mind; the benefits of becoming enlightened early, and not waiting until a later age. In a similar way, we can follow this principle in the workplace; not taking advantage of having less pressure and procrastinating, but rather using this time wisely to strategise, to learn from others, and to replenish our intellect in many ways. To keep focused, requires a chain of events; we need knowledge of the categories of activity; strategic, tactical and operation, we then need to prioritise and balance these intelligently, and finally we need to continually be aware of the importance of this in order to be able to maintain focused and be undisturbed by those events that may distract us. If we do this, we will be content in each of the tasks we are doing, because we will know their place in the broader scheme.