I used to wonder if there was something wrong with me…when I would set about tackling a plan, task or activity it was like I was in a tunnel isolated completely from everyone and everything around me.
If I was 100%, all-in on something, it did not matter what was going on around me, there was no distracting me (internal dialog as well as external feedback were all muted).
The great thing about this is that I was able to be amazingly productive in very short periods of time often getting huge results with 1-hour of focused work where someone else would work away at something for days and not achieve the same results.
It used to really irritate me when I was with someone working on a task and they did not have the same degree of focus, maybe that’s why I sucked at group projects in school.
Flash forward to today and I have since learned from some of the top entrepreneurs in the world (some of which were truly ADD), that they see their strongest asset as being the ability to focus (I mean REALLY focus) on what was important ignoring everything and everyone around them especially anyone who would jeopardize their path forward (either time-wasters or negative nellies)
I came across this piece by Shark Tank’s “Bad” Shark Kevin O’leary and low and behold — here he gives his #1 tip for being a successful entrepreneur as the ability to “put on the shutters” and ignore the naysayers and critics – stick to your guns and get it done was the secret to much of his success.
This holds completely true in my life – what about yours?
Even if you are the type of person that has trouble focusing, can you recall times in your life when you did intensely focus on something and if so, how did that turn out for you?
