Focus Precedes Success

At LeaderTreks, we have ten key leadership principles. We know many others exist, but we chose ten because memorizing and living out 86 leadership principles is really difficult. Not saying it can’t be done, just not by me. One of my favorite principles to teach is the principle of focus precedes success. It’s the simple idea that if we are to be successful – in our leadership and in life – intentionality and focus are always needed. No one just shows up one day and achieves success out of the blue; they have to work hard and be intentional about what they are doing. When I teach this principle, I often ask people to think about each day they have in front of them as a choice. Everyone has the choice to live their days out on purpose, or on accident; it’s really up to you. In order to live your life on purpose, you have to think about how you want to spend each day, to think through how you will be intentional with your time. I am a person of action steps, so just simply talking about how I want to spend my day isn’t enough for me. I like to ask others, “What are the seven things you want to do everyday?” Whether you want to spend time with people, read, write, be outside, or whatever it is, sit down and think through how you would love to spend your day. Make a list and keep it where you can see it each day. It’s a powerful challenge to try and do all seven things each day. And yeah, they’ll be many days you won’t be able to get to each of them, but that’s okay. Focusing on how you want to spend your day and then living it out always leads to success.