Episode 1234: The Power of Focus

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1,234 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:06] Janey Pitts: I'm Janie Pitts. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to really understand who you are in Christ is key, and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to.

[00:00:31] The Inspired Stewardship podcast with my friend Scott

[00:00:35] Scott Maderer: Mader.

[00:00:36] Have you put things down with a timeline, when you should start, when you should begin, when you should keep. Going for these things. Do you have clarity about what your goal really is? What does it look like? What would achieving it mean? What is the actual outcome that you want? Or is it just this sort of vague [00:01:00] idea?

[00:01:00] Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, who will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that.

[00:01:24] Can impact the world

[00:01:27] in today's episode about impacting the world through stewarding in your talent. I talk with you about what focus really means. I talk about the power of focus for your life, and I also share how focus can be grown and developed. You've heard me talk about developing your talent, and one of the best ways to do that is through books.

[00:01:46] But if you're like most people today, it's hard to find the time to read, and that's why today's podcast is brought to you by Audible. Go to inspired stewardship.com/audible to sign up [00:02:00] and you can get a 30 day free trial. There's over 180,000 titles to choose from, and you can pick one and listen your way to developing your talents via.

[00:02:13] That's inspired stewardship.com/audible to get your free trial and listen to great books the same way you're listening to this podcast. Focus is a word that we all use all the time. We talk about it as something that we wish we had, but the truth is focus is a foundational skill that is really important to achieving almost any goal at almost any area of your life.

[00:02:43] Simply put, it's that ability to concentrate, to pay attention to things, to avoid distractions so that you can complete the task or the goal you have at hand. And we talk a lot about motivation and other things like that [00:03:00] and discipline. But the wor truth is focus is a key skill that most, if not all successful people have at some level.

[00:03:12] IT focus can help really change your life because it allows you to begin to achieve your goals and develop confidence that you can get things and get them done. It. It begins to have help. You have a positive and grateful attitude about things because you begin to move towards feeling that you're able to do the things that you.

[00:03:38] What set your mind to that you think are the most important? Focus helps open up opportunities for other things because as you begin to be able to get things done, you begin to be able to see more possibilities and believe that you could get those done as well. You begin to see other [00:04:00] options in your life that weren't there initial.

[00:04:03] To be true, the options were there, but you just didn't have the confidence or the belief that you could do them, and therefore, those opportunities seemed out of reach. Focus helps expand your knowledge and your skills in other areas because as you begin to learn to overcome distraction and overcome, And achieve goals.

[00:04:27] You again, begin to believe that you can do that, and that makes you begin to open up your mind into new things and new opportunities, and new skills and new knowledge, and actually believe that you can achieve those things and therefore achieve them. It begins to make you more productive in terms of your task management, your prioritization, in terms of your ability to get things done and get the right things done.

[00:04:58] Like we always talk about when I talk about [00:05:00] productivity, that's part of focus. It helps you knock down and achieve goals in other areas of your life, which makes you begin to achieve whatever it is that you have defined. As success because you can do things consistently and give priority to those things that you feel are most important.

[00:05:22] To begin to achieve focus, you gotta look at things like your schedule. Have you put things down with a. Timeline, when you should start, when you should begin, when you should keep going for these things. Do you have clarity about what your goal really is? What does it look like? What would achieving it mean?

[00:05:45] What is the actual outcome that you want? Or is it just this sort of vague idea? Do you have structure and routine in your life that you can depend? , do you have a why behind the goal that [00:06:00] is deeper than just I want to achieve it, but becomes why you want to achieve it. So you know now what you want to achieve and you know why you want to achieve it.

[00:06:11] And from there you can begin to develop an action plan that allows you. actually achieve it. The how becomes part of the process as well at that point. But how only comes about after the why and the what, How is the third point of that? The truth is over time you can develop, focus and grow it.

[00:06:40] It's like any other. You have to begin to practice it in the small areas of your life. This is one of the reasons that I put forward. Having those routines of a morning routine, an evening routine, a work startup and a work shutdown routine are so important because as you develop that habit and routine, you begin [00:07:00] to believe that you can develop habits and routines in other areas of your life.

[00:07:05] Success in one area begins to build success in others. But it only happens whenever you actually develop those routines and develop the commitment to stick to them. You can also worry about things like, are you able to overcome distractions? And what do you do to set up and block the distractions out of your life?

[00:07:32] But over time, you can work on your focus and develop it as. . Thanks for listening.

[00:07:41] Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you like this [00:08:00] episode on the Stewardship of Talent, you can go over to inspired stewardship.com/talent and sign up for our five week series on the stewardship of talent.

[00:08:12] Or if you're in the us, you can text 4, 4, 2 2, 2 talent tips. That's talent tips to 4, 4, 2, 2, 2, and get those tips. Until next time, invest your. Your talent and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the world.