What’s Your Main Thing?

Do you know what the main thing is for you in this cycle of life? Do you know the gift that’s waiting for your attention? Has the main thing changed since your last transition? How are you keeping the main thing the main thing and progressing toward it?

I suspect you know full well that everything you do is affected by the focus of your attention. You also know that what you’re focused on has a significant impact on the results you produce. Do you also know that when you focus on where you’re going, all kinds of possibilities open for you? What are you focusing on? What’s the main thing?

I find it quite amazing that most of us haven’t been trained to make the main thing we want the main thing. Rather than being conditioned to focus on what we want to move toward, we’re trained to focus on what we want to move away from. Do you know what happens when you tell a child not to spill their milk? The child gets a mental picture of spilling the milk which inevitably insures that the milk will be spilled.

Do you remember your own childhood or that of your children? How much training did you get and give about what not to do as opposed to what to do? Do you remember your teachers telling you what your deficiencies were, the mistakes you made? How much coaching did you get about how well you did and how you could improve?

Which helps you keep the main thing the main thing: What’s the problem? or What results do you want to accomplish? – Why did you make that decision? or What would be the benefit of doing it differently? – Don’t you know any better? or What was effective about the way it worked? Do you see how the questions asked can move us away from and toward improvement? Do you see how attitudes and focus change the outcomes?

When we focus on what we want, goals and objectives, rather than on what we don’t want, problems, we get what we want. The opposite is also true. A friend of mine, Doug Krug, gives another good example: “Think about driving and coming upon a pothole. What happens when you stare at it? You hit it!” When we create the image of the metaphorical pothole, the problem, we go looking for one: danger and opportunity . . .

We do this in our private lives and our organizational lives. We say things like: “Don’t mess up – Don’t fumble the ball – Don’t associate with those people – Don’t interrupt me when I’m talking – Don’t waste your talent on that. If overcoming obstacles, improving performance, and successful accomplishment is what you want, positively reframe your energies toward the main thing. Create the mental image of what you want. Imagine it.

What would be the advantages and benefits of this approach for you? What are you most pleased with about yourself? What’s working well for you? Are you focusing on what you want and where you’re going? Imagine Aliveness. Lean Into it. Make it so.