[VIDEO+ACTIVITY] Duncan Nugget #103: Focus On The Task At Hand

Picture this:

I’m standing 3 feet away from my 5-yr old son, Mekhi. I call him. He doesn’t answer. Hmm…

I say his name a little louder, “Mekhi!”

Still no response. Grrr…

“MEKHIIII!!!”

Believe it or not, he still doesn’t respond. I’m thinking, “Oh lord! My child is deaf.” But that’s not it. He can’t hear me because he’s watching his show. He’s focused.

If you’re a parent, you’ve experienced this. If you have parents, you’ve done this!

You’re probably thinking, “That is not focus. He was ignoring you.” Ha! I can see where you’re coming from, but wait. Isn’t that what focus is?

The ability to ignore anything that has nothing to do with the task at hand. 

HINT: When engrossed in something you are passionate about, you have that ability.

Million-Dollar Question:
What are you so passionate about that you ignore all distractions and focus on the task at hand?

[POSTER] Duncan Nugget® #14: Your Performance Today

Million-Dollar Question:
If your life was
remembered based on
how well you performed today,
would that be okay with you?

LEARN. DO. IMPROVE.

TODAY.

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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS/ACTION STEPS

[VIDEO] Duncan Nugget® #78: Seize The Opportunity

Recently, I asked a friend, “Why are you procrastinating about this opportunity?” He answered, “I’m not procrastinating. I’m being patient.”

There is a thin line between patience and procrastination.

On one side, you seize opportunities. Awesome. On the other side, you snooze on opportunities. Not awesome.

“Opportunities multiply as they are seized.” That’s from the Art of War. It means that when you snooze on one, you miss others you can’t even see. That’s why you must understand the difference between patience and procrastination.

Patience is taking a calculated risk. Procrastination is avoiding risk.

Patience is making time to learn what to do. Procrastination is knowing what to do and not doing it.

Patience is saying, “This will take awhile so, let’s get started now.” Procrastination is saying, “I’ll get to it sooner or later.”

Of course, later never comes.

Million-Dollar Question:
What opportunity do you need to seize right now?

_______________

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

[VIDEO] Duncan Nugget® #281: Bogeys & Birdies

Economists at the University of Pennsylvania analyzed 2.5 million golf putts. (You know the game, right? If given four strokes to get the ball in the hole, but you do it in 5, that’s a bogey. Not good. You took too many shots. If you do it in 3 strokes, that’s a birdie. Awesome.)

The analysis showed that golfers concentrated and performed better when playing to avoid bogeys versus playing for birdies. Think about that.

It shows that people tend to be more motivated by fear of loss than desire for gain.

It works the same way in life:

“All of my bills are paid. That’s good enough.”

“I passed the test. That’s good enough.”

Not cool.

That’s doing just enough to get by and avoid a loss.

Million-Dollar Question:
In the game of life, are you playing to avoid a bogey (loss) or get a birdie (something exceptional)?

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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Think about the last time you challenged yourself. What were you doing? What made it a challenge? What was the outcome and what lessons did you learn? How are you using those lessons now?

2. Do you think that risk-taking is an important part of success? Why or why not?

3. If you had to take a risk on learning something new that could be embarrassing if you mess it up, how would you handle the situation? Has something like happend to you before? What did you do about it?

4. Do you think it’s better to take an easy class and get an “A” or take a challenging class where you might get a “C”? Explain how you came to this decision.

5. If you were 100% guaranteed to succeed, what is one thing you would challenge yourself to do? What would it take to be successful at this challenge? What are 3 things you can do to begin to build the skills and acquire the necessary resources to get it done?

[INFOGRAPHIC] Is Social Media Ruining Students?

[VIDEO] Duncan Nugget® #197: Protecting Your Momentum

There are few things harder than starting.

Starting what?

Anything that is a worthwhile endeavor.

It takes a lot of energy to get started. The Space Shuttle uses the most fuel during take off. Your car uses the most battery power when it’s starting up. Think about that. It recharges when it’s running.

Getting started in school or starting a new job, exercise program or business, is challenging because you’re creating momentum and fighting inertia: the natural tendency of an object to resist a change in motion.

Be careful. It’s the start-up phase that breaks a lot people. But not you, right?

You want to take at least one action step, daily, that will help you build and protect your momentum because one thing that’s harder than starting is starting over.

Million-Dollar Question:
What are you committed to doing to
build and protect your momentum?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Have you (or someone you know) ever been doing really well at something and then just stopped working on it? What happened? If it could be done all over, what would you do or suggest the person does differently? How will you use this knowledge in your future endeavors?

2. In your opinion, what are the 3 main reasons people have a hard time getting started on their goals? Have any of those things ever affected you? How? What did you do about it?

[VIDEO] Duncan Nugget® #245: Single Point Of Focus

“Here’s a question for you… What did you do when you hit that point where you knew you were doing things to make a difference but, it just didn’t seem like it was enough? What kept you motivated and focused so that you weren’t thinning yourself out trying to be apart of to many causes?”

Two things:

1. Great leaders are seldom, if ever, satisfied. They are always tweaking things to become more efficient, effective, and productive. They are always striving to do better. They always feel as if there is more to be done. More progress to be made. So, if you feel like that…congratulations.

2.

Duncan Nugget #245:
Focus is difficult to achieve because it requires sacrifice. It requires you to give something up in order to accomplish more.

One day it finally dawned on me that most successful people and great leaders have a single point of focus—one main thing that they are obsessed with getting done. They may be busy doing other things and have other interests, but they are still honed in on that single point of focus. Ultimately, they refuse to allow anything to get in the way.

Million-Dollar Question:[break]What’s your single point of focus?

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[I was asked this question via the National Society of Leadership and Success Facebook page.]