You Get What You Focus On

Simple enough isn't it? The statement says it all - You get what you focus on.

Stretch the meaning of this little quote and you could cause quite a stir, and gain a lot of global attention, because it sounds so easy. All I have to do is focus on what I want and shazzam - it comes into my life? This idea of success and instant wealth naturally fills the "...There's gotta be an easier way to get what I want..." - mentality, dominant in society today. It meets the needs of those who want everything, and only willing to contribute as little as possible to get it!

Let's look into this quote a little more closely, to gain some clarity on this often used and misused statement.

It takes more than just focusing on something and you get it (aka "The Secret" - not!). The idea that you get what you focus on, popularised recently by the movie "The Secret" apparently supported by a mystical secret law called the "Law of Attraction". Personally, I thought it was a great money earner (don't buy the book - save your money) for those who produced it, and who eventually ended up being hosted on the Oprah Winfrey Show. It certainly worked for them financially and gained a strong following worldwide, of would be wealth creators. Hoping, if they thought of what they want often enough, it would be attracted to them! (Yea - whatever!!!)

Some Clarity Needed

I'll clear up a few things here to clarify what I consider the real meaning of - "you get what you focus on". The quote has been said in a number of variations over the centuries, like James Allen, who's popular book entitled, As a Man Thinketh (well worth a read) said it like this "...As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is". I've often used in my presentations the variation "...We become our most dominant thought..." Whichever variation you use, it all comes down to this 1 consistent factor, that our thinking powerfully influences what we experience in life.

7 Key Points to Follow

To get what you focus on you need to follow some very important rules which I have listed below, so here they are:

1) You need to have a clear and defined (specific) understanding of what it is that you wish to get more of in your life.

2) You need to consistently think of what it is you want (See step 4).

3) You need to have a positive emotional connection with what you want. Emotion will fuel your desire for what you want (read my earlier blog on the 4D's of Success). To give you an idea of the level of intensity that emotion plays apart in this for you is that it needs to be a physical sensation. I recall personally when wanting to achieve a specific outcome in my life how I could be physically moved by the emotion (i.e. tears, muscle tension, a smile, clenched fist etc...). It needs to be at a level of intensity that you "feel' the emotion as being near overwhelming and it is directly linked to your level of certainty of what you want will eventuate for you.

4) You need to have an obsession with what it is that you want. This means that you will think of it often throughout the day. It will be the 1st thing you think of when you wake up and it will be the last thing you think of before going to sleep. And, you may even dream about it while you're asleep! Are you getting what I mean? - that's intense isn't it! Yet this is what is needed. Too often I meet people who think they will get what they focus on, but have know idea of the degree to which they must focus on it. You need to hold it mind on a consistent and regular basis - day in and day out!

5) You need to actively be involved with making it a reality in your life. This requires you to be physically involved in performing practical, planned actions that will ensure you experience what you want, as a reality. Do you understand this part? You MUST practically do something physically about getting what it is that you want.

6) You must have a strong sense of it being "true" to you. There are things that you know are true in your life. What you want must also have the same level of meaning - that it is true and therefore you are certain that what you want will materialise for you (backed up by deliberate action). That it is not a dream, but a certainty for you, that this can and will happen - undeniably!

7) Complete and utter belief that any possibility of failure is not possible. The only possible outcome is success. Irrespective of setbacks, hardships and temporary failings. Nothing (...and I mean nothing) can stop you from getting what you have focused on.

As Easy As That!

So there you have it. Quite easy, really, isn't it! Naturally, if it was that easy everyone would be doing it. Many want things and they are really only wishing they had them and are unwilling to make the real commitment (as I've listed above) to do what they need to do to get what they want.

Use the list above as reminder of what you MUST do to get what you want by focusing on it. Use the 7 points to enhance your goal setting. It's entirely up to you, stop thinking that there is an easy road to success. Nothing comes from doing nothing. Focus on what you want and actively pursue it! All the best in applying these principles to your future goals and aspirations.

In this article I've focused on the actualisation of your goals byway how you think of what you focus on. In a later article I will write about how your behaviour and therefore your results are radically influenced by what you most consistently think of.