“Focusing on the wrong things can undermine the success of your efforts.” 

Your Change In Perspective

So how do you actually stay on track for the day and get things done?

• Choose and Go. Once you have decided on your tasks for the day, stop worrying about other tasks and finish the ones in front of you.

In the movie Apollo 13, the spacecraft suffers damage and the astronauts move through a series of procedures to prepare the spacecraft for reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere. Given the damage, success is hardly assured. While they are working, Bill Paxton (who plays astronaut Fred Haise Sr.) questions whether Mission Control in Houston is giving the astronauts accurate information. Tom Hanks (who plays captain Jim Lovell) says: “All right, there’s a thousand things that have to happen in order. We are on number eight. You’re talking about number six hundred and ninety-two… We’re not going to go bouncing off the walls for ten minutes, because we’re just going to end up back here with the same problems!”

• Work the Problem. Don’t spend your time thinking about what it. Spent your time and energy on the issue in front of you.
• Focus. Focus on the items you have determined require your attention that day. The entrepreneur’s path to success is rarely built with “giant leaps for mankind” but steadily won with, determined, daily progress. When we chip away at today’s to-do list, we build powerful momentum for our business.

The more time you spend on the ninety items not on your list, the more you stunt the growth of the business. First, you are still not getting the ninety done. Second, you probably are doing a bad job with the ten you need to and actually can get done.