I believe focused effort is the key to success.
This belief does not necessarily always translate into my own diligent efforts and practices, but that doesn’t diminish its truth. Doing what we should, when we should do it, whether we feel like it or not is doubtlessly a missing ingredient in such a distracted society as ours where technology, hobbies, and a host of other stimuli have short-circuited our basic ability to focus on doing what is at hand.
Allow me to paint good advice in colloquial terms: “if you chase two rabbits, you won’t catch either one.”
I can’t help but consider the fable of the tortoise and the hare. The tortoise was able to realize success because of his constant focus and diligent discipline in moving toward what he wanted. The hare, who probably no less wanted to win the race, just couldn’t maintain the focus and diligence required to meet his goal.
Here we learn an important lesson: success is more than just want to, it’s consistent focused effort toward a worthwhile goal. Constant, consistent plodding brings success.
I have learned that I can do anything I want; I just can’t do everything I want. Focus requires that I make the sacrifice of good things, so that I can gain the great things.
Thoreau, sensing a similar truth, once wrote, “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.”
This I believe.
