One very important thing that differentiates successful people from those who are struggling to make success is where they focus their attention on. Winners focus on winning; that is, on their goal, on the actions leading to their goal, and on their growth. On the other hand, those who are falling short of success are often those who do not focus on their goals but on others. You cannot have your dominant attention on people and expect to move forward or make significant progress in life. Have you ever seen an athlete running a 100 metre race but looking at the spectators, fans, or fellow athletes? If they do it, they will be distracted and they will lose the race. In life, success requires you to focus on your goals, dreams, and personal growth.
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When you focus your attention on winning, your entire energy will be channelled to what truly matters. You will spend time to improve yourself, work on your skills, refine your plans, and take ready actions. Remember that your progress in life is based on your own personal growth, not on another person's achievements. When you know that you are responsible for your growth, it will realign your focus to what truly matters, it will also create clarity of purpose. You will know where you are going, and you will also be fully committed to getting there and achieving your desired goals.
A friend of mine started a business in the front of the street in her neighbourhood. She then noticed that some other people also started the same business almost the same time she did. Each time we saw, she would always complain about her competition, and how it was affecting her sales. I then advised her to focus less on her competition and focus more on how to grow her skills. So she focused on improving her products, growing her skills, and learning better marketing strategies. Over time, her business grew massively because she shifted her attention and focused on progress.
One of the things that prevent people from making progress is the distraction that comes from focusing on others. The truth is that there will still be someone doing better than you, and there will also be others you are doing better than. But all these should not concern you. What you should focus on is how to be better today than you were in the past. If you start to compare yourself with others, you will lose focus, and it may even lead to discouragement, distraction, jealousy, and insecurity. You have your own race to run, and it is without recourse to what others are doing or not doing. After all, you are not here to live under someone else's shadows, but to create your own path.
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It is worthy to note that everyone's path is different. People start at different points, they come from different backgrounds, they face different challenges, and they move at different speeds in life. You see, it will be unfair and unwise to compare your first chapter to someone else's tenth chapter. It will simply put you under undue pressure. More so, if you waste your time to watch others, you may lose crucial opportunities. Time is constantly passing, so if you do not utilise it to improve on yourself, you may not get the time back again, and you would have lost important moments.
It is true that you can observe successful people, but it is only for inspiration, motivation, and to learn lessons, but not to compare yourself with them or to compete against them. You can learn a lot of lessons from people who have gone ahead of you, which you can apply to yourself and become better. You are not asking yourself why the other person is ahead of you, rather you are asking yourself what you can do to move forward in life. It is this kind of thought that actually makes one to pursue after success. When you focus on making yourself better, you will see that success will become a resultant effect of it.
When you focus on winning, it will build your confidence. This is because, when attention is channelled to your improvement, you will begin to see the progress that you are making even if it is small, and this will boost your confidence. This will also build momentum for you. Each step you take forward will also give birth to other steps, and over time, this will lead to significant achievements.
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