Focus Quotes - 26 quotes

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Focus

Focus is essential for success in many aspects of life, from achieving personal goals to performing well in professional tasks. Focus can be defined in different ways, depending on the context. Focus can mean concentrating attention or effort on a particular task. For example, focusing on studying... show more

quote icon A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future.

- Albert Einstein

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quote icon If your boat has a serious leak, you don’t care what direction it’s pointed.

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quote icon A unique aspect of Getting Things Done is that it starts with where you are, not where you should be. It’s a misconception that Getting Things Done doesn’t focus on the “Big Stuff.” Getting Things Done helps people address whatever has their attention right now so they can free up mental space to more clearly target what they want to focus on.

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quote icon As a fighter pilot and airline captain, I learned that while I could not choose the adversity I would encounter during a flight, I could choose how I prepared and how I reacted. What is needed during times of crisis is calm and clear-headed trust. How do we do this? We face the facts and return to the fundamentals, to the basic gospel principles, to what matters most. You strengthen your private religious behavior—like prayer and scripture study and keeping God’s commandments. You make the decisions based on best proven practices. Focus on the things you can do and not on the things you cannot do. You muster your faith. And you listen for the guiding word of the Lord and His prophet to lead you to safety. Remember, this is the Church of Jesus Christ—He is at the helm.

- Dieter F. Uchtdorf

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quote icon We burn valuable time doing things that aren’t necessary or important because this busyness makes us feel productive. For instance, responding to non-urgent e-mails when you know you have a big project that you need to finish. It’s tough, but you need to recognize when you’re using trivial activities to shield yourself from sloth or fear.

- Dr. Travis Bradberry

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quote icon There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root...

- Henry David Thoreau

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quote icon We worship what we think will save us.

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quote icon In this conference, we will hear truths that inspire us to change, improve, and purify our lives. Through personal revelation, we can prevent what some call “general conference overwhelm”—when we leave so determined to do it all now. Women wear many hats, but it is impossible, and unnecessary, to wear them all at once. The Spirit helps us determine which work to focus on today.13

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quote icon Effective coaching interventions address issues that are naturally alive for the group at the particular time when they are made. Those that ask members to consider matters that are not salient for them at the time may do little other than distract the team from getting on with its work.

- J. Richard Hackman

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quote icon To the extent that a man is in focus, however, the world with all its possibilities opens up to him.

- Leonard Peikoff

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quote icon To act in accordance with one's values is a complex responsibility. It requires that one know what he is doing and why.

- Leonard Peikoff

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quote icon Instead of pursuing many-sided mediocrity and calling it "well-roundedness", a definite person determines the one best thing to do and then does it.

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quote icon Each of us found pleasure, whenever possible, in focusing on one small task. One task, we often said, clears the mind.

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quote icon You can do anything you want to do. What is rare is this actual wanting to do a specific thing: wanting it so much that you are practically blind to all other things, that nothing else will satisfy you.

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quote icon As a result, it is vital that we also ask our loving Heavenly Father what we are in need of and where we should focus our efforts. He has a perfect view of us and will lovingly show us our weakness.

- Scott D. Whiting

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quote icon People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.

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quote icon Success demands singleness of purpose.

- Vince Lombardi

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quote icon It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.

- Winston Churchill

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quote icon It's not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.

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quote icon I learned that we can do anything, but we can't do everything... at least not at the same time. So think of your priorities not in terms of what activities you do, but when you do them. Timing is everything.

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quote icon What you envision in your mind, how you see yourself, and how you envision the world around you is of great importance because those things become your focus.

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quote icon If you do not know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere.

- Henry Kissinger

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quote icon Either you run the day or the day runs you.

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quote icon â€œA lot of people, especially these days, feel like there simply isnâ€™t enough timeâ€”ever. Too much to take care of, too many things to do, not enough time to do them. So details become an annoyance: we canâ€™t ignore them, so we rush to get through them and go on to the important things. We see time as a limited container stuffed fullâ€”and yet we have to stuff still more into it. So we are in a crisis of time, as many of our idioms about time suggest: pressed for time, running out of time, wasting or saving time, time pressure, and so on. We donâ€™t have time for taking care of details. Or so we think. But time isnâ€™t a containerâ€”time is life. There is always exactly enough time. Once Yun-yen was sweeping up the temple grounds. His dharma brother Tao-wu said, â€œToo busy!â€ Yun-yen said, â€œYou should know thereâ€™s one whoâ€™s not busy.â€ Tao-wu said, â€œOh, then there are two moons?â€ Yun-yen held up his broom and said, â€œWhich moon is this?â€ Once I gave a retreat on this story, and a lot of people concerned about time pressure and busyness attended. Somehow the retreat came to the attention of Oprah Winfreyâ€™s producers, and they asked me to write an article about it and eventually to be a guest on her show. But I couldnâ€™t go to Chicago. I was too busy! Yun-yen is saying that although he is fully immersed in what he is doing, he isnâ€™t busy. Being busy or not isnâ€™t a matter of how much you have to do. It depends on your view, your attitude. If you insist that time is a limited container thatâ€™s nearly full and now you are trying to stuff three or four more things into it, then yes, you are too busy. You become anxious. But if you recognize that time is life, then you just do whatever you are doing when you are doing it, and when it is finished, you do something else. Maybe you donâ€™t complete all the tasks on your list. But nothing is ever complete! We will all die with unfinished businessâ€”and, at the same time, with everything complete. There arenâ€™t â€œtwo moonsâ€ (important things and unimportant things, busyness and unbusyness). Thereâ€™s just one moon. It includes everything. Yun-yenâ€™s sweeping up right now is all he needs. Everything is there in it. I am sure that when Yun-yen finished sweeping, he went on to do something else, just like us. And although Yun-yen is a monastic whose tasks are simple, his lesson applies to us as well. We also sweep. But whether we are sweeping or talking on the telephone or working on a spreadsheet, itâ€™s the same. â€œThere is one here who isnâ€™t busy,â€ who knows how to do what needs to be done. This story reminds me of another story, about the contemporary Korean Zen master Seung Sahn, who spent much of his life teaching in the United States. (His Kwan Um School of Zen is still going strong.) He would always preach that students ought to just do what they were doing. They ought to do one thing and do it completely. Once a student caught him eating breakfast while reading the paper. The student said, â€œYou teach us to just do one thing. And look at you, eating and reading at the same time.â€ Seung Sahn said, â€œYes, but I am just reading and eating.â€â€

- Norman Fischer, Susan Moon

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quote icon Paying attention is the most basic and profound expression of love.

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quote icon The successful man is the average man... focused.

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