An executive coaching client complained that he wasn’t focused. He mentioned it no less than four times on his intake sheet. However, as our coaching is progressing, he hasn’t decided on any goals, so he has no tasks to work on, and since he has no tasks to work on, he has nothing to focus on. Well, you get the picture.

Continuing to “wing it” through life doesn’t lend one the ability to focus because you’re all over the place. There is a lack of direction. A story told by James Clear about a lion tamer serves to illustrate the point perfectly. A lion tamer found a unique way to work with lions so they wouldn’t attack him in the ring while performing at the circus. The lion tamer carries a whip and a chair into the cage. The whip is mostly for show. When the chair is thrust in the lion’s face, he can’t focus on just one of the legs and so the lion freezes with indecision. Sound familiar?