The Power of Focus - Consistent Persistence

Focus Strategy number 8 from our walk through of the book, The Power of Focus is Consistent Persistence. 

Consistent Persistence is the prelude to excellence and greatness. When stand for something and commit to doing it well you create remarkable results. You will in turn attract top people and rich rewards for your efforts.

In this lesson you will put and end to scatter brained action, random living and fuzzy vision. If you actions are pretty consistent and on task with your success motivation goals then congratulations and if you are troubled by a lack of focus and consistent actions I have the solution for you. Either way, consistent persistence will bump your activity up to the next level for positive change and achievement.
Your Greatest Power

Your greatest power is your ability to choose between "having to" and "wanting to". Here is a 2 part activity straight from The Power of Focus and this is very powerful. You have to finish this in order to realize the simplicity and liberating power of this strategy.

I want to write down 3 activities that have to get done within the next 3 months. Provide real tasks with real due dates of 3 months or less. It could be anything from goals to groceries. Just give a brief description for each. Next to each activity I want you write down your feelings about that activity. Be honest and make it a one word description of your how you feel. Here are some feeling words to help: upset, worried, excited, joyful, frustrated, happy, sad.

Here's an example of 3 Have-To's and associated Feelings.

1. Reorganize my office - Anxious

2. Pay Taxes - Excited

3. Give Presentation at work - Nervous

Great! You've completed this short activity. Now cross everything off the list! Here is where you get start get more powerful. The simplicity and power behind this exercise is that you don't have to do anything! Sure there are consequences and repercussions for not doing certain activities but you really don't have to do them. You may be happy if your activities are complete or someone else who is impacted by you not competing a certain may end unhappy as well but again and to be redundant...you don't have to do anything if you don't want to.

All this this is about to become clear. When looking back at your list what types of feelings did you associate with your activities? Positive or negative?
Okay lets move on to the next part of this exercise. Do the same exercise again but this time list 3 activities you would really look forward to completed within the next 3 months and associated a word feeling with each activity.

Okay, right now you have two short lists. One is a Have-To list and the other is the Want-To list. I'm guessing that the have-to list result in more negative feelings associated with each activity and the want-to list have positive feelings with most if not all the activities on that list. The point here is that negative feelings weigh you done and steal energy from your efforts whereas positive feelings generate energy and lift you up in completing your tasks. Now ideally this would be great but the world isn't perfect right?

So how do you create positive feelings about the things in life you simply have to do? In life there are things we simply have to do no matter how we feel about them right? If you answered yes, you are WRONG. 

absolutely everything in life is a choice

The simple truth is that all of life is about choice. Those living in mediocrity do so by choice. It isn't about what they have to do and what they want do. Rather, it is about what they think about the power to choose and the consistent choices that persistent in their lives. Do you understand how powerful this is? This is exciting! 

Libraries are filled with the books that document the stories and those have have turned their lives around profoundly through consistent persistence. The developed the habit of consistently positive actions. 

Your trigger point for change is realizing that you can choose a different future. It is your consistency of positive choices or the lack thereof that have provided you with the life you now live. When you realize this you will start to experience greater peace of mind. 

You will see statements like "he made me angry", "I'm stuck in this relationship" or "I'll never make enough money to be financially free" are not longer valid. The truth is that you choose to be angry, you choose not to leave a relationship or you consistently make choices that work against your financial freedom.

Consistent Persistence is learning how to choose wisely and make the right choices for your life and continually making the right choices for the right results.

So understanding that you have choice in any matter means that you don't have to live your life in have-to land. Living according to have-to's put you in a position of pressure and causes resentment and negative feelings that drain your life energy. When you live from a position of choose-to you live from a position of real power. Because you choose-to, you feel in control of your life.

Choose To Be Free

Consistent Persistence is choosing the play in the game and doing your best every time. It takes conscious effort to think about every task set before you on a daily basis but there is where the playing to win goes a long way for success motivation. For example, if you hate taking out the trash don't feel like you have to take out the trash. Instead, choose to take out the trash and to do a good job when you do it. Give yourself a positive reason why you are choosing to instead of feeling like you have to. 

Do feel the shift in power here? This is how you tackle the have-to activities in your life. You re-frame those tasks in your mind and consciously choose to do them. It is only from the power position that you can then work on creating the lifestyle you desire and that allows you to delegate any and all tasks that you don't like doing.

Make every activity you do from this day forward a conscious choice. Shift your focus from the negative have-to's and realize your power to choose-to. Consistent Persistence allows you to enjoy the power of freedom that consistent choosing adds to your life.