Do you ever watch an athlete’s face during competition? I do. In all my years of, teaching, managing, and working in real estate, I have rarely seen focus and attention that even comes close to that of an athlete during a game. It isn’t simply the focus of the eyes or the turn of the head. Every muscle, every breath is focused on the moment at hand. Body and mind, working as one, are poised, calculating, anticipating, and engaging, ready to respond and spring into action. Did the young man in the picture take the time to think about how high he needed to leap to intercept the ball at the right moment? Did he realize that he was three feet in the air? Did he look around to see who saw his impressive leap? No. He was engaged in what has happening in the moment, and he responded.
How often do we respond like this in business? We don’t. We’re often too busy worrying about how things will make us look or posturing ourselves to make the most out of the “next big thing” that we can overlook the now. We miss the moment, because we lose focus. #7’s eyes never left that ball. What is the goal on which we should fix our eyes? Our customer. Knowing the market is important. Staying current on continuing ed credits, political situations, economic policy and technology is important. But if we look away and lose focus on our customer, all of the work will be for naught. If we let those things distract us, the customer will sail past us and roll away, ready to be scooped up and delivered into the goal by another player in the game.
Stop for a moment and look at the picture. Take a lesson from #7. Commit. Never lose focus. Great things can happen in the moment. Then leap into the air and put it all out there. The goal is just ahead.
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