Focus on what?

I was talking to a friend earlier, I'll call him Grant. (I'll call him that because that's his name and it just makes more sense that way...)

Anyway, we briefly discussed the idea of focus. He suggested that I write something on focus, being that...actually I don't know why he suggested that, but here goes.

I was at Starbucks this afternoon, after I talked to Grant, and I was thinking about the topic of focus and how does one focus, how does one decide what to focus on, and so on. Surprisingly enough an answer to that question popped into my head.

Before I get to that, let me discuss a principle found in multiple books, off of which my thought was based on. The principle is one of my favorites and it is Be, Do, Have.

This is explained best by working backwards: In order to have, you must do. And in order to do, you must become. Unfortunately, the majority of people get this principle backwards which is why we have state lotteries that are so ridiculously well funded. People want to have $492 million dollars, but they don't want to do anything to get that money any other way, and they certainly aren't interested in becoming proper stewards/managers first.

Why this is relates to our general distaste for personal responsibility, our philosophies of something for nothing, and our complete and utter lack of time perspective.

Relate it to an apple tree. We want the apple, but we don't want to plant the seedling in the soil and wait for the roots to to take hold and then wait for the tree to grow. We want the apple NOW! Why wait? Can't wait! Gotta go, gotta move.

Calm yourself.

The answer is this: Define what fruit you want (Have). Then work or focus on the root system that will produce that fruit (Be). Once you begin Be-ing, you can start growing (Do), which will produce the effect that you wanted.

Then you can enjoy that apple.