He stood there rooted to the ground. The result of the professional examination that he had just written had been released and behold, he could just not find his name on the pass list. As he read through the list a few thoughts came to his mind and his mind began to work like a machine in overdrive. So how did he get to this level? What really went wrong? The phrase that kept coming to his mind was ‘the power of focus ’. The thought of it was so strong that he had to do a quick re-appraisal of the situation.

It has been said that performance is a product of motivation and ability. The output that we get out of our activities is a reflection of the motivation we have which ultimately lead us to put the required effort and the ability that we have for the task in question. Well a good number of people have abilities for what they are doing. This ability may be inborn or may be acquired by training, either formal or informal. Quite a number of people will also tell you the reason why they are getting involved in whatever it is that they are doing. After all we all want to appear as rational people and we have good reasons for whatever we are channeling our effort into. Why then is it that we find so many people start something and they are not able to finish? How is it then that a lot of output is not commensurate with the ability that we possess either innately by virtue of our genetic makeup (nature) or by the virtue of the training that we have received and our environmental influences (nurture)?

The answer is in focus! Focus is the ability to stay on course in the face of distracting issues. We must be aware that our lives are multi-facet and all the different areas are as important as we take them to be. Take for instance a married person who has committed himself to another to love and to cherish. He made a vow before God and man to take his wife above all others. At the same time he is driven by professional goals to excel in his chosen field. Surely such a one has to balance his time between nurturing his relationship and giving the extra push, time and effort that professional excellence demands. There are a thousand and one other areas that we can think about. These issues can be distracting and lead to one taking his mind away from the goal and loss of focus.

Another reason why we may lose focus may be because of varied number of interests and a good measure of talents to back it up. Take for instance a friend of mine that is very good in a foreign language. She has a great deal of desire to excel in this area of her life. She has attended a few conferences, delivered a few papers and is seeking to become a prolific interpreter and translator in that particular language. However, she is also fascinated with marketing. As a matter of fact, friends sometimes tease her that she can sell Ice to an Eskimo. So because she is torn between these two areas she has not been able to actualize her potential in either of them. What she lacks is focus!   

Now life does not always give us what we think we deserve. The uncertainty of life adds to the excitement of daily living. Sometime we get involved in something that we think we are good at. We think we have giving it what it takes to success. However we find that along the way things are just not falling into place as we think they would. It seems apparently that we are failing as it were. A good number of people give up at this time and throw in the towel! And so we see people who have left a long list of failed project in their trail. As time goes on self doubt begin to develop and failure eventually becomes a habit, a way of life. At such times what is needed is focus. A tenacity of purpose which will help in seeing through the project.

And so as he stood rooted to the spot where he went to check the pass list for the examination, he   discovered that he had taken on too many things at a time as they have caught his fancy. He therefore did not have as much time as he should have had to study for the examination the way he should. The ability is there and the motivation is not lacking, only he has to focus to get his desired goal!