What You Focus On Matters

For the first half of my life I didn't understand the power of my mind. I didn't understand the power of my thoughts, concerns, and where my attention was taking me. I had to learn the hard way that wherever your thoughts point, your life follows. 

Over the past 6 years I've studied great thinkers and teachers such as Napoleon Hill, James Allen, and Wallace Waddles, and they basically all say the same thing: Focus on what you want, not what you don't want. 

In this article I want to share with you 5 ways where your focus matters: wealth, happiness, health, success, and the entire direction of your life. 

Your Focus Impacts Your Wealth

You can't think like a thousandaire and become a millionaire. 

Thousandaires, and I mean people who are struggling to make ends meet financially, focus on financial survival. They are living just to get by and playing it safe financially. They spend what they make, and they measure their financial health by their income. They believe if they can just increase their income, their financial health will improve. 

Thousandaires tend to feel that money equals survival, and that it is a scarce resource that should be hard-earned, feared, and protected at all costs. 

Millionaires, or more specifically people who have created financial margin in their lives and businesses, focus on service and creating impact in the world. They know that solving problems that others want solved will bring financial exchange into their lives at a greater rate than hiding in the corporate world. Millionaires know that the more problems they solve and the more impact they have in the world the more their financial net-worth will grow. They measure their financial health by their net-worth, not their income. 

These folks have moved beyond seeing money as survival, and know that giving up a steady and predictable stream of income creates the opportunity to constantly expand their ability to increase their net-worth as they wish. 

Thousandaires are focused on staying afloat, millionaires are focused on creating wealth. 

Your Focus Impacts Your Health

You can't think about disease and create health.

I often talk to people who identify with their diagnosis or their disease. They literally have taken ownership of their health problem. 

My cancer. My ADD. My ADHD. My fibromyalgia. My (insert struggle here). When you take ownership of something, you typically fight to keep it in your possession. 

Whenever I hear someone mention "my (insert diagnosis here)" I ask them if I can help them reframe it to something more empowering like "the (insert diagnosis here) that I'm healing." The strange thing is that oftentimes they won't surrender their mindset, and they set out to convince me that they're stuck with it for the rest of their lives. 

In Dr. Joe Dispenza's book, You Are The Placebo, he shows us how the mind heals the body. First you must be willing to let go of your diagnosis and be willing to resume a healthy life. 

It seems to me many people want their disease more than they want health. You can't create health by focusing on your disease. 

Your Focus Impacts Your Happiness

You can't think miserable thoughts and experience happiness.

The quality of your thoughts determine the quality of your life. When I had miserable thoughts rattling around in my head, my life was miserable. As the quality of my thoughts shifted from miserable to kind and empowering thoughts, my life became more kind and empowering.

The average human being has between 80,000 and 120,000 thoughts per day, and the amount of happiness contained in those thoughts will create the happiness you experience. Thoughts spring forth from the beliefs we hold, and each belief is either empowering or disempowering. Each thought is a pointer to help you identify how you perceive life, and your view of life can change any time you are ready. 

Beliefs and thoughts like the ones below can be shifted to create a happier life and existence:

Shift 'life is hard' to 'life is only hard when I resist life and what is natural for me'.

Shift 'making money is hard' to 'money comes easily when I solve problems and receive money easily for the service I provide'.

Shift 'life is dangerous' to 'life is full of wealth, love, and joy when I look for wealth, love, and joy'.

Shift 'I've got to sacrifice myself to make money' to 'my natural talents are worth millions of dollars when I share them with the world'.

Shift 'marriage is hard' to 'marriage is about 2 complete and supportive people helping each other live their own purpose'.

Shift 'I do not deserve to live a good life' to 'I am equally significant with everyone else on the planet, and deserve whatever I want'. 

The quality of the beliefs you hold creates the quality of thoughts you experience, and you can't think miserable thoughts and enjoy the happiness available to you. 

Your Focus Impacts Your Success

You can't focus on failure and become a success.

There are many people on the planet who are resigned to doing jobs they hate, going where they'd rather not go, and working for people who they'd rather not work for all because they are afraid of failure. They only think of failure, not of the success that's fully available to them. 

Since I've made the leap into entrepreneurism I've "failed" many times. Every time I've "failed" it taught me what didn't work on the way to success. Every time I fall short of my intentions, life has delivered the exact lesson and outcome I needed to modify my approach. Over time, with enough failure and with enough modifications, I succeed. 

People who are stuck simply obsess over failure. They can only think of failure, and that's why they are playing small in lives that don't match their ambitions or desires. They are trying to avoid failure more than they are trying to succeed. They are avoiding loss. That's their goal: to play it safe and survive until they die. 

Success requires that you get clear about what you are trying to create, being certain that you can have whatever you want, remaining committed to your vision through the ups and downs while holding the vision of what you want, and moving from inspired action to inspired action. 

You can't think about failure and experience success. 

How Your Focus Impacts The Direction of Your Life

You can't think about what you don't want and get what you do want. 

Do you know why most people don't have what they want? Because they don't know what they want. Most people only know what they are trying to avoid - so they focus on exactly that. 

What you focus on, grows. Your focus matters, and when you focus on what you don't want, you are signing yourself up for exactly that - to create what you don't want.

Here's a powerful awareness to understand: you will never run away from something or toward something at the same time. Running away from poverty is not the same as running toward wealth. You are doing one or the other. Your focus is your attention, and your attention is your intention. 

Putting It All Together

Get clear about what you want. If you don't you're simply trying to avoid pain and suffering, and meanwhile you're bringing about in your life the exact thing you're trying to avoid. Your focus matters. 

You can't create an awesome life by trying to avoid a miserable life. 

Know what you want, focus on it regardless of what shows up, and eventually you'll find yourself living the dream that is perfect for you. 

Photo by Stefan Cosma on Unsplash