The Prime Leader Is Focused

” For do not let that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, not dependable in all his ways.” – James 1:7, 8.

In order to lead people, you will need to be focused. Have you ever met people who come up with a great idea everyday? All the time they are shifting their goal posts, changing the game: football today, rugby tomorrow! Today they want to start a catering business, tomorrow they trash that idea and want to go into funeral parlours. When you look back at their success in any of their “great business ideas” you find they have not done a thing on any of them. They are double-minded and not dependable in all their ways. When they lead people they get everyone confused. Imagine being led by a leader whose vision is always changing. You get the feeling of being a headless chicken, running anywhere and everywhere. Focus is key to achievement: setting your eyes upon the goal and going after it with all that is in you. Only then can you put into practice the ingredients of success. Changing your mind everyday will make you live perpetually in the brain storming phase never starting anything.

Placing value on the vision is key. When a leader is running with a vision that is not deeply etched into his heart, it is easy to just thrust it aside and declare it dead. It is easy to be swayed away from it by focussing on things that are less important. Meetings and activities that are not at all tied to the vision can be a snare to the leader. Some things only exist to test your allegiance to your vision. Losing sight of what is the first (important) thing in the vision will lead to its death. Look at Nehemiah in this passage:

“And it happened, when Sanballat, and Tobiah and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall, and that there was no break left in it (though at that time I had not set the doors on the gates), Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, Come, let us meet together in the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me harm. And I sent messengers to them, saying, I am doing a great work, so I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and come down to you? And they sent to me four times in this way. And I answered them in the same way.” – Nehemiah 6:1-6.

Nehemiah noticed the importance of the work he was doing and was able to discern those that thought to do him harm. Are you able to say the same to your distractions? Small things like the forwarded mail, the unimportant text messages, the ringing phone can become such distractions that remove your focus from the first things. One of the seven habits of highly effective people according to Steven R. Covey is “Do first things first”. Failure to identify these things will lead you into failure without even realising it. Make optimal use of all the hours in the day that you focus on those things that will lead you to success. Reserve entertainment for the days and times assigned to it. Remember the word of King Solomon:

“To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heavens: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pull up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.” – Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.

Your place is to discern what time it is in your life, your business or your family. It can’t be a time to dance all the time. Some times it’s a time to build up and building up is not a walk in the park. It takes effort, focus, prayer and fasting, wisdom, research, faith, and many other things that laziness will protest against. It will take focus to build up, plant, give birth, heal, gather up stones together, embrace and all those things that are not passive. Determine today to be a focussed leader whose eyes are set before the goal. Run the race to finish it. Set the boundaries by way of strong values. Plan ahead of time and review progress. Adjust course as befitting and keep pressing on. Focus, focus and focus.

Affirmation: I am a focussed leader. I sway not to the left or to the right but I keep my gaze upon the goal.