I can remember when I graduated from high school and my father sat me down to talk with me about my future and the decisions I would be faced with. I am appreciative of the fact that I had a dad who wasn't interested in telling me what he wanted me to do. Instead he desired to empower me with the ability to make my own choices. He shared with me these important words. "At this time in your life, for every door of opporunity that you open and walk into, you are going to close a thousand others." My dad's intention of saying this wasn't to limit my potential, but to clearly illustrate the power of our choices, and saying yes to one things, means I have to say no to a thousand other things.
My fireside chat with my dad, one of among many, helped me to understand that I must take seriously the choices that I make. Understand the consequences of that choice, both the good and the bad, then make a decision. When you make a choice to go forward with something. Don't hesitate or look back. Move forward toward the goal you have set to achieve.
Making good choices and setting goals is no easy job. The only way you become good at it is through practice. It is also helpful to have people around you in life that can coach you in the process. Another of my father's axiom's is "My role as a father is not to prevent you from making mistakes. Only to keep you from making the same mistakes that I made."
Our relationship plays a paramount role in this area of our lives, because each of us as believers must come to a plac ein our relationship with God where we are willing to surrender ourselves to Him. To say as Jesus did, "Not my will, but yours be done." When we come to that revelation, and place of obedience, God is able to reveal to us, his purpose and direction for our life. The choices we make are acts of obedience to His will in our lives.
There is no shortage of achievement in the world that we live in. In today's culture, people race against one another chasing after illusions of success and significance. For many, they spend their entire lives climbing up the ladder, only to discover that when they get high enough up the ladder to look around, they discover they are leaning against the wrong wall.
In order to focus effectively, the first question we must ask is, "Are we focusing on the thing(s) God desires me to focus on?" When Elijah, approached Elisha, instructing him to follow him, Elisha quickly liquidated the assets of his business, said goodbye to his family, and focused himself obediently to God's direction for his life. The Bible is full of examples of obedience, where both men and women lay down their own personal ambitions, to fulfill God's purpose for their life.
What we focus on, is as important as how we focus to achieve it.
Discussion points?
Have you ever focused on things that were not Gods plan for your life?
Can you describe the tension that is felt when God brings you to a place where He asks you to lay down something of yourself in order to take hold of his purpose for you?
What areas of your life has God asked you to focus on?
What plans are you making to accomplish those areas of focus?
Welcome
Ed Turose - Guest Speaker
Fortune 500 Strategic Planner
In our modern culture, we are consistently bombarded with distractions. We have television, internet, cell phones, smart phones, radios, mp3 players, and a myriad of other information driven media bombarding us from all directions.
Many of us have been taught in our 21st century information-overloaded culture to embrace this phenomenon by multi-tasking. In a day where our smart phones can calculate at exponentially higher rates of speed than our mental capacities, we are required to function in similar form. The result many of us find is this - a lot of work, with very little results.
History records the world's greatest achievers. If you study them carefully, they all have one distinct characteristic, FOCUS.
I personally love the story of Coach Herb Brooks. If any of you have seen the movie "Miracle", it recounts the story of Herb and his 1980 USA Olympic Hockey team and their journey to the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid New York. The story begins with a discussion with Herb interviewing for the coaching job with the Olympic commitee. Herb clearly articulates his goal if he were given the job. To beat the Soviet Union hockey team in the Olympic games, a feat that had not been done since 1960. The rest of the movie is a chronology of the calculated steps Herb makes in taking a young group of hockey players from all across the nation, and building a team that is capable of achieving the very goal Herb sets out to accomplish. This movie clearly portrays that amount of focus, determination, as well as the discipline Herb has to focus on this specific goal. My favorite part in the movie comes at the end when, after the USA defeat the Soviet team, Herb leaves the main area, and walks to a lonely place in one of the thin halls of the complex. There you watch as Herb raises clenched hands as he physically expresses his triumph. You visually witness nearly a year of focused emotion and energy, released at one moment. That is the power of FOCUS.
It is important for us to recognize the value of being able to do multiple things at once. But everything that we do that becomes valuable in our life, is a result of focus, persistent, work, growth and determination to achieve specific goals. That is why it is so important that we evaluate areas in our life that may be a distraction (the things that keep us from achieving our goals), and be willing to apply discipline in our lives to set those things aside, because they hinder us from reaching our destination.
Mark 4:13-20
And He said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. 16 These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; 17 and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble. 18 Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, 19 and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 20 But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred." NKJV
The word of God demonstrates that distractions are an issue that transcend time, culture, or geography. We will be looking at what should we focus us in our next entry, but take time to consider and comment on:
Are you easily distracted?
What are the things that easily distract you?
What can you do limit or remove those distractions?
Can distractions be healthy?
What might be some ideas to help you focus on your goals?
The Power of FOCUS!
As we begin our journey together, I believe it is important for us to develop a lexicon – an assortment of words which we will commonly use in the context of our discussion. The importance of a lexicon is that everyone participating in the discussion are in agreement with what each word means.
We are going to be spending a lot of time talking about “FOCUS” and how to apply this principle in our lives, but what does it mean for us?
According to Miriam Webster, focus is defined as:
2focus Function: verb Inflected Form(s): fo·cused also fo·cussed; fo·cus·ing also fo·cus·sing Date: 1775 transitive verb1 a: to bring into focus b: to adjust the focus of (as the eye or a lens)2: to cause to be concentrated
— fo·cus·able \-kə-sə-bəl\ adjective
— fo·cus·er noun
I believe it important for us to understand terms because it enables us to direct our attention on what is really important. FOCUS as we will be discussing it is a process. A process which has a pre-determined result. Many of us know in mathematics that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. No one can argue that there is more than one method to get to a particular point, but everyone would agree that the most efficient and time-effective method is the one with the shortest distance.
I can remember the family trips in the car as a child, sitting in the back seat of the Family Monte Carlo, wondering when we were going to arrive at our destination, only being disappointed that we had not even left our subdivision. I remember my dad letting me hold the map as I attempted to reconcile landmarks or turns in the road, with what I was reading on the map. I remember getting frustrated knowing our destination was on the opposite side of the lake, and knowing that we had to go the long way around to get to where we planned to go. If only my dad had the foresight to buy a boat to take us over the lake, then we would not be burdened with the long travel. This was long before the days of DVD players, portable radio headsets, and the other various sundry items that entertain our children today. We were truly pioneers!
I use this story as an illustration to emphasize two key points:
1. Our destination is the reason for us taking the trip in the first place. There is little value in taking the trip if you don’t know where you are going. In life it is imperative that we know where we are going. As believers, in Christ, it is imperative that we know where God wants us to go. When we discover where God is taking us, we can then begin the process of FOCUS to get us there. If we neglect this principle step, we can spend our entire lives climbing a ladder, only to discover that when we get up high enough to see around us, we are leaning against the wrong wall.
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 NIV
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
2. The FOCUS process is designed to get us there in the shortest amount of time possible. I understand it is difficult to reconcile all of life’s events into a mathematical equation. The “lines” of life are rarely straight, but I know from personal experience that there is a long and short way to traveling to where God wants us to go. Ultimately all of us want to experience the abundance of life that God has for us, and we should prioritize God’s principles to experience His abundant life. Just as a reminder, the journey to our destination in God’s purposes is equally valuable to the arrival point.
FOCUS CONNECTION:
What does the FOCUS process look like to you?
What are some of the things you do to focus?
What are some things that can be a distraction to you?
What are some ways that motivate you? What are some ways that discourage you?
Post a response to any or all of these questions – Let’s begin the journey together!
Greetings,
This is the official roll-out of our preparation to the Focus Fulfilled Life Seminar, coming Saturday, May 16, 2009. If you have already registered, we want to equip you with all the tools necessary to make this seminar as impactful as possible. If you haven't registered, click on this link to the official event site at http://www.focusforlife.org/.
To accomplish this, Ed and I will be working with you providing you with materials and other tools to be sure you are ready to fully embrace the process. This is a new experiment for both Ed and I, in that we want this seminar to be more than just an event for you to participate in. The Focus Fulfilled Life Seminar, is simply that, an event. The results come when you apply the teaching and principles from the event in an effort to reach your goals.
We want this event to be a life-changing event for you personally, for your family as well as your relationship with God. This is why we are providing fun, interactive resources for you to communicate with us, ask your questions, and post your comments on this blog.
It is our hope and prayer that this will be a year of significant breakthrough for you and your family.
Chris Voegelin,
Event and Blog Host