Focus

“Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem” – Zig Ziglar

I always wanted to do so many things in my life. Books to read, movies to watch, Netflix to binge, restaurants to eat, cities/countries to visit, courses to enroll, skills to develop, and the list never ends. I always had a big wish list and tried to do everything at the same time. This ended up causing unnecessary stress as I always had FOMO at the back of my mind and I was not making any progress on the skills I want to learn/improve.

Usually, I read a lot of articles, blogs related to investments, personal finance, etc. When I was reading a blog about discipline in personal life and finance, I came across a story about Warren Buffet. It goes like this.

Mike Flint Story

Mike Flint was Buffett's personal airplane pilot for 10 years. According to Flint, he was talking about his career priorities with Buffett when his boss asked the pilot to go through a 3-step exercise.
Here's how it works…

1. Buffett started by asking Flint to write down his top 25 career goals.
2. Then, Buffett asked Flint to review his list and circle his top 5 goals.
3. At this point, Flint had two lists. The 5 items he had circled were List A and the 20 items he had not circled were List B.

Flint confirmed that he would start working on his top 5 goals right away. And that's when Buffett asked him about the second list, “And what about the ones you didn't circle?”

Flint replied, “Well, the top 5 are my primary focus, but the other 20 come in a close second. They are still important so I’ll work on those intermittently as I see fit. They are not as urgent, but I still plan to give them a dedicated effort.”

To which Buffett replied, “No. You’ve got it wrong, Mike. Everything you didn’t circle just became your Avoid-At-All-Cost list. No matter what, these things get no attention from you until you’ve succeeded with your top 5.”

It’s a profound story about essentialism and eliminating the excess. You can improve your life not only by keep on adding but also by eliminating certain habits.

How focus helped me to improve

After reading this story, I wanted to apply this principle to my personal life. I decided to stop doing everything and made a list of goals I want to achieve in the short term (month’s time) and long term (year’s time).

Thank God, I didn't have a list of 25 career goals like Mike. However, still, my list had around 10 goals which I needed to trim down. I eliminated goals like Learning about Blockchain/Bitcoin, Binge-watching every new hit series in Netflix, Learning Web design, Practicing for Half Marathon, Learn swimming, etc and came with the below list.

My short term list

• Write a blog
• Start learning Graphic Design
• Start learning to Copywrite
• Do yoga and exercise daily

My long term list

• Write at least 20 blogs in a year's time
• Design UI/UX for a website/app
• Write microcopy for a website/app
• Be fit and healthy

Once I had this list, it gave me a lot of clarity on which areas I should focus on and I was able to track my progress against each goal. Also, my anxiety level reduced as I no longer worry about things that I am not doing.

So, whenever you feel overwhelmed with your life, list down the goals you want to achieve in your life and ruthlessly eliminate everything else and see the results for yourself.