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"Do not try to do the great things; do the little things with love."
Mother Teresa

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Leadership Notes -- Thoughts on Leading People and Making a Difference in Organizations

Word count this issue: 288

Estimated reading time:  2.0 minutes

 

I have been working on a learning project with the Neuroleadership Institute. One of the pieces that has resonated with me is the idea of “Choosing Your Focus.” In short, what you focus on, is what you think about

Five words help illustrate the idea of choosing your focus:

 

Vision

Planning

Detail

Problem

Drama

 

If I focus on the problem, or on the drama, that is what I will think about. I find myself on a hamster wheel, running around and around. Remember the old adage, attributed to Albert Einstein, “the mind that created the problem is not the mind that can find the solution.” For years, I have always assumed that adage meant that new people need to be brought in to find the solution. I was wrong. In fact, we can change our mind by changing our focus. If we move up the column into a focus on vision and planning, this amazing, creative organ, the brain, can be freed to see new perspectives, new opportunities, new possibilities.

Here are two relatively easy ways of changing your focus.

1.   If you find yourself focusing on a problem, or on some drama, ask your self, “how long have I been thinking about this?” This simple question may well change your focus and get you moving up the column.

2.   Ask yourself, what do I want out of this? What’s my objective here? Again, it’s perhaps a simple question that pushes you off the hamster wheel and starting to think about vision and planning.

May this week, be one of changing focus and changing mind.