“What you choose to focus on, will govern and direct the state and quality of your life.”
Robert Kanaat
Uncertain times are amongst us. As I write this, the normalcies of life that we once knew are evaporating, hurtling the world into economic and social chaos. Countries are locking down because people are getting sick. They’re dying. And this Virus called COVID-19 is unbiasedly spreading and infecting the entire planet.
Some choose to focus on the chaos. Some on hope. While others focus on the fear of worst-case, doom-and-gloom scenarios playing out. They ask things like, What if I lose my job, what will I do? Or, How will I find new customers for my business in this economic climate?
Where Focus Goes, Energy Flows
Most people don’t understand that stress and the pressure of current events wreaks havoc on our lives. Internally and externally. Where our focus goes, our energy flows. Meaning, if you focus on what’s bad in the world, you will produce more of that in your life.
Events like this fast-moving virus not only disrupt our lives from a macro-perspective, where industries are forced to shudder. But also from an immune-response perspective. Focusing on negativity creates stress, which can down-regulate genes and suppress our body’s innate capability to fight off diseases.
Yet, some cannot simply tune out the proverbial noise. They watch every update in the news and are glued and fixated on how bad things are, making themselves feel worse and worse about their own prospects in life. Do not fall into this trap.
No matter when you’r reading this, understand the following: this too shall pass.
Your Life Is Dictated By Your Level Of Focus
Life is cyclical. So are stock markets. Real estate prices. Tides. Sunrises and sunsets. Seasons. Moods. And everything in between. What’s most important when things go haywire is to ensure that you understand where to place your focus.
Understand that there is an infinite and intelligent energy that binds us all. This energy is abundant by nature. It is always giving and ever-present. You can call this energy whatever you like. Whether that’s God, Allah, Buddha, or simply the spiritual oneness that connects us all. But it is undoubtedly omnipresent.
Yet, some of choose to ignore its existence. And instead of focusing on abundance, we embrace emotions like anger, resent, guilt and shame, shifting blame outward. These emotions are an indication that you’re focusing on scarcity and negativity rather than its powerful counterparts, abundance and positivity.
Create And Design The Life You Want To Live By Shifting Your Focus
It’s important to grasp this very important concept that the world’s greatest companies are created during times of great calamity and strife. In fact, it sets the foundation. Lays the groundwork. Creates concrete will and commitment to do something extraordinary in life. But not if you focus on the wrong things.
General Electric (GE) was founded in 1873, a time of major chaos and panic in the economic markets. Walt Disney created his company in 1923, several short years before the Great Depression of the 1930’s, preceded by the deep economic winter tat ensued after the fallout of the Black Monday stock market crash of 1929. Similarly, HP and Microsoft were also formed during financially catastrophic times.
Here’s the truth no matter where you are in life or in business: You must ask better questions if you want to get better results. Now is not the time to blame others for anything. There is a rhyme and a reason for all that is happening today. We might not understand or grasp it. But those who believe that there is a greater purpose and a higher calling today will be the ones who enjoy boundless prosperity tomorrow.
Leveraging The Powerful Principles Of Prosperity And Success
There are things you should be focusing on and things you shouldn’t be focusing on right now. No matter when you’re reading these words — whether it’s during an economic fallout or during vibrant financial times of prosperity — there are powerful principles to prosperity and success that you must employ today if you want true success tomorrow.
1. Stop Watching The News
Remember that where your focus goes, your energy flows. And the news is primarily focused on one thing and one thing only. Fear. Why? Because fear sells. Fear gets viewers. It creates uncertainty and helps to validate all the negative, self-fulfilling speculations that people have in their minds.
If you’re watching the news, my advice to you is to stop watching it. That doesn’t mean. you don’t have to be informed about what’s going on or to be armed with the knowledge to protect your family. It just means you should stop checking for updates dozens of times a day.
2. Avoid Wasting Time
No matter when you’re reading this, understand that time is not on your side. While time might be a construct of the human experience (I won’t get into a talk about quantum mechanics and non-locality here), it is the one resource that we all have in equal parts.
You and I, and everyone else on this planet, has the same amount of time. Just 24 hours in a day. That’s it. No more. What you choose to focus your time on is going to dictate the state and quality of your life. Focus on fear-based thoughts and you will manifest that into your life.
Instead, mange your time. Leverage it. Invest it. You will never get this moment back again. So do something important with it. Be inspired. Get motivated. And focus on something that empowers, uplifts and propels you towards what you want rather than what you fear (or don’t want) in life.
3. Become A Producer Of Content, Not A Consumer
Most people are consumers of content. They spend endless hours on social media seeing the lives of others, watching videos that others create, and consuming endless arrays of updates from news media and other companies and people they follow. They are content-consumers. Not producers.
Take this time to produce content. Not consume it. Most people sit back and think that they’ll start producing and publishing content tomorrow or some other time, just not now. When you consume content, you’re subject to the opinions and views of others rather than publishing your own.
I don’t just sit back and consume other content. Instead, I publish things that inspire and motivate others. By doing so, I inspire and motivate myself. I tap into the universal abundance out there that is infinite and always giving to ensure that I spread those messages. And so can you.
4. Be Purposeful In All That You Do
Living with purpose in life means that you are not a product of your circumstances. Rather, you create your own circumstances. Many of us live in this state of fear, propagated by uncertainty. Look, uncertain times can only be fearful if you allow them to be. Fear is simply false evidence appearing real. Understand that and your life will shift.
Live with purpose, passion and intention. This is your time to shine. It’s your time to create and design the life of your dreams. Build it. Map it out. And understand that you are the product of pure abundance and love so don’t restrict what you already are from flowing into your life by having doubts. Believe in yourself and life a purposeful life. It will cause everything that you are and have to change.
5. Focus On The Reasons First And The Answers Will Follow
Why do we do what we do? Ever stop to wonder or think about that? I know I have. In fact, it’s been a mild obsession with human behavior that goes back to when I was just a kid. I, like many others, have understood that if I can come up with a powerful enough reason to do something, that I would find a way to do it. Period. As Jim Rohn once said, reasons come first, answers come second.
Ever want something so badly where the reason was so powerful that nothing could dissuade you? No amount of self-doubt or doubt from others could stop you from getting it. You were committed and totally focused because you had a powerful enough reason why you wanted it.
When you can come up with a reason that powerful in your life, nothing can stop you. That’s the truth. So find that reason and focus on it wholeheartedly. Nothing can get in the way of someone who has total and pure commitment like that.
6. Surround Yourself With The Right People
You are the product of the people you surround yourself with. So if you want to focus on the right things, then surround yourself with the right people. This is the surest way to raise your standards. Because, the truth is that so many people have very low standards. That’s because they surround themselves with people who aren’t playing life at a high level.
Sometimes, we forget how important this is. But imagine it this way. If you were trying to improve your golf game, would you play someone who was worse than you, as good as you, or far better than you? Obviously, by playing someone who is far better, you learn to raise your standards and become a better golfer. The same thing applies in every other area of your life.
7. Focus On An Attitude Of Gratitude
What are you grateful for in life? No, I mean truly grateful for? Do you take the little things for granted? Or do you appreciate them? Your reality is a construct of your perception. And if you take things for granted, they could one day be taken from your life, causing you an immense amount of pain and regret for never appreciating them in the first place.
Has this happened to you? Whether it means losing a job, a loved one, money, friendships, or a limb, we’ve all been through something like this. But when you stop to appreciate everything (and I do mean everything) that is when you can shift your focus and tap into the pure abundance that makes you who you are.
Every morning I’ll start off with everything that I’m grateful for. Before I even get out of bed. I start listing every single thing off that I can think of. I go into great detail about this because I know that it’s easy to take things for granted that I have right now.
I’ll say things like, I’m grateful for…
- My fingers and my hands.
- The heart beating inside my chest.
- That I can read and read.
- The air that I breathe.
- The birds.
- The sun.
- My pillow and my bed.
- Cars and roads and traffic lights.
- The snow and the wind and the rain.
- My nose and my mouth and my tongue.
Get the picture?
This might sound trivial to you. But when you focus on gratitude, everything changes in your life. Remember, you get what you focus on. And if you stand in the way of the abundance that’s already been given to you, then you cut yourself off from the infinite source of intelligence that’s always giving.