Preparation AND Focus

“Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.” ~~Aesop~~

This quote may best sum up the discussion from last week. Focus and knowing your desired outcome may be the most critical components of actually achieving your goals. I guess I’ve come full circle. Preparation is critical to knowing what your desired outcomes are and actually achieving that focus. Preparation may include research, due diligence, having conversations, networking… and it also may include mental training such as mediation, affirmations and other exercises to help you get and stay focused. Zeroing in on the substance is only really possible when you can successfully “weed out” excessive information.

I am reading Blink by Malcolm Gladwell right now, and he actually talks about this quite extensively. It‘s in a different context, but it’s gotten me thinking… Gladwell gives several examples when having too much information in fact causes incorrect action. He says, “…truly successful decision making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.” Deliberate thinking comes from preparation. Instinctive thinking comes from focus. Put them together, and you have a winning combination.