A Lack Of Focus Will Eventually Show

Strangely enough, this is my 9 year old's deer stand. A couple of years ago she began expressing an interest in hunting. As a parent, I felt obliged to support her unusual interest until Sydney determined it was a temporary fad. I taught her about firearm safety, respect for wildlife and how to sharpen her marksmanship skills. Two years later, we are about to embark on our first season of climbing into the stand, sitting for hours, and hopefully, finding success. Stay tuned!

As we worked on preparing the stand and attempting to get it to blend into the surroundings, I felt quite smug that we had done a fantastic job... that is until one of my friends reminded me that the leaves would soon fall from the trees and we could be much more readily seen by wildlife of all kinds.

The experience reminded me of how we can fool ourselves into thinking that we are being productive, when we are really just being busy. Things seem to be humming along well until we miss a deadline, deliver a shoddy job on an important project, or simply don't get the right work done. Our brains are more than happy to encourage us to check off a million "something elses" as opposed to 2 or 3 really important things. But the "leaves" of time will pass, and we will be exposed to the reality that we have not spent our time wisely.

Today, before you begin to work on your massive to do list, why not stop for a moment and ask yourself, "Are these really the most important things for me to focus on?" If not, now might be the perfect time to make some changes... before you fail to hit your own professional and personal targets of success.