SOMETIMES TWO, RARELY THREE
Sunday Aug. 4, 2019
Clichés abound about ‘a door closing and a window opening’, th at message meaning – when one opportunity goes away, another shows up, when we turn away from what isn’t working we often clearly see a wonderful opportunity staring us in the face.
Windows are opening all the time, not just when doors close. We just don’t notice as well as we might because we are too busy with all those things we are too busy with. Then some urgency arrives and windows start opening – it’s the strangest thing, some people would have you believe.
We filter most of what comes our way – given th at volume, how could we function without a filter, without some real or metaphorical fire-wall of defens e?
There is a current popular view that ‘focus’ is key to success in what we do and I believe too often we focus so much on the focus that we neglect to see the obvious around us. I would argue we need both – both an eyes-wide-open approach to all things which might help us while at the same time, convinced more than ever that a drill-down concentration on one-key-thing at a time is the best way to be both effective and productive. In this effort I’ve found, as always, that I try to do more than I have time for and then wrestle with priorities – and I’ve learned the folly of that. A partial job of everything is just that, not getting to completion. Lesson learned: do more by trying to focus on less.
On e at a time, o ne thing to focus on daily, s ometimes two. Rarely three.
Seems to be working better.
