Focus on making that Goal!
In light of the World Cup I’ve been playing more soccer than usual lately. I love soccer, don’t you? I’m not that good, but I don’t really care; I just love playing and having fun. Yesterday I was kicking the ball around and taking some shots. My shot was really off and I continued to miss and miss one shot after the other.
While playing, I noticed a man take a seat next to the field. He was definitely watching me as I ran around the field taking more shots. He must’ve been watching me as I continued to miss; he signaled for me to come over to the bench for a little chat.
We introduced ourselves and began talking about soccer. Very nice man. He told me how he just got back from Egypt where they play soccer everyday. He went on to tell me that the reason I was missing my shots was due to my lack of focus.
He said that when I kick the ball my mind should be clear of all other thoughts; my mind should isolate exactly where I want the ball to go and I must really visualize that happening in my head. “If you want the ball to go into the net, you need to not only follow through with your kick, but you need to follow through with the thought in your mind,” he said.
Wow… his advice really struck a chord. I began to think about business and how important it is to really, really focus on your goals. But even more than that, the following through of that focusing.
We all have ideas. We all have goals. We all have ambitions. But those are only pieces to the puzzle. To truly become successful, we must follow through. We must follow through first in our minds — that is very important. You have to be able to see yourself succeeding before it can happen. Then we must physically follow through with our actions.
To steal a quote from the movie Batman Begins: “It is not who we are inside, but it’s our actions that define us.”
It is our actions in life that we will be remembered for. It is our actions that will change this world. It all starts with our thoughts, but finishes with what we do with them.
After focusing and metally seeing the ball enter the net, I began making more shots! I will do the same with my business and I hope that you will as well.
This is a great post, Dave - I couldn’t agree more.
It’s funny, too, about the Batman Begins quote. I saw that movie with a bunch of my friends and we got into a big debate about that specific quote, which I personally think is absolutely true. Half the group agreed with it, half didn’t. I think the ones in denial were that way mostly because they didn’t want to believe that a lack of drive in turning thoughts into actions could result in a disconnect between the way one sees himself/herself vs. how the world sees that person.
Truth is, you may think you’re a charitable person, but if you never find the time in your busy schedule to do anything charitable, you won’t be remembered that way. You may think you’re smart, yet not take the advanced classes in your high school. And you may be a great entrepreneur, but then meet the perfect spouse and decide to go a different route with your life. Whatever the situation, you won’t be remembered for what you contemplate and/or start, but rather, what you finish.
And out of all of that - the point is, a true entrepreneur realizes that everyday should include some self-reflection. You should ask yourself: Where am I now, How did I get here, Where am I going, and How will I get there? Because as Yogi Berra once said, “You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.”