Success Means Focus

Success requires constant focus and redirection towards goals and positivity. It’s inevitable that distractions will appear, fun will develop, ankle biters will appear. Focusing on the positive and disregarding the temporary and ultimately unimportant, is a constant exercise, but one that remains a critical action.

As someone committed to success, distractions must fall to the ways side. They have no affect on the future unless they are allowed to take too much time and resources. Instead positive motivation and visioning followed by continuous action steps are the right usage of effort. For me, there many exercises I execute to regain focus, from reading motivation pieces, audio books on tape, work-outs, and equally important, talking with other people who I consider to be winners. All of these activities keep me on the upside.

It’s Monday and there’s a lot of proposal writing to do this week. One cool thing is a book proposal relating to this blog, the result of an agent meeting last month in NYC. In addition I need to write a follow-up project report and corresponding recommendations, plus some media activity for one of my other clients.

Proposal writing requires patience. Often I find myself wrestling with the proposal’s objectives before I engage. The key is to hit the recipient hard with the value proposition immediately in the document. If the receiver feels like the document doesn’t reflect them and their needs (both stated and implied), then the proposal fails. The rest should be strategy suggestions, and tactical execution.

So, for me the investment comes in the first couple of paragraphs or pages… it means getting into the minds and need of the other party, and leaving my agenda at the door. Documents of this nature should only deal with the agency in the sense of qualifying it… but once credibility is achieved, it should strictly be written towards the target audience’s needs and motivations. Really no one wants to talk to marketing agency so the agency can market itself… they have an objective in mind.

It’s the beginning of the week, so here are some positive quotes for thought:

“The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.”
-Anonymous

"Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them -- a desire, a dream, a vision."
-Mohammed Ali