32 Quotes to Inspire Focused Living

When you focus, you direct your attention and energy in one direction. It’s often the difference between mediocrity and excellence, starting and finishing, wishing and doing.

A few months ago I came across an acronym for f.o.c.u.s. I found very helpful. It goes like this:

FOCUS – Find One Course Until Successful

There are so many distractions. Things we start but never finish. We fall into the trap of believing the myth of multi-tasking – which is a verifiable myth!

If you’re like me, you will benefit from a reminder of the incredible power of being focused – whether at home, at school, at play, at work, or anywhere else you find yourself.

1. The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want. – Ben Stein
2. What you choose to focus your mind on is critical because you will become what you think about most of the time.  – Noel Peebles
3. The main thing is keeping the main thing the main thing. – German Proverb
4. Don’t waste time calculating your chances of success and failure. Just fix your aim and begin. – Guan Yin Tzu
5. To do two things at once is to do neither. – Publilius Syrus
6. It’s the constant and determined effort that breaks down resistance, sweeps away all obstacles. – Claude M. Bristol
7. A person who aims at nothing is sure to hit it. – Author unknown
8. Excellence is in the details. Give attention to the details and excellence will come. -Perry Paxton
9. Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus. – Alexander Graham Bell
10. You become what you think about. – Earl Nightingale
11. It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time. – Sir Winston Churchill
12. You can’t pick cherries with your back to the tree. – John Pierpont (JP) Morgan
13. Only when your consciousness is totally focused on the moment you are in can you receive whatever gift, lesson, or delight that moment has to offer. – Barbara De Angelis
14. It is a process of diverting one’s scattered forces into one powerful channel. – James Allen
15. If you’ve lost focus, just sit down and be still. Take the idea and rock it to and fro. Keep some of it and throw some away, and it will renew itself. You need do no more. – Clarissa Pinkola Estes
16. Often he who does too much does too little. – Italian Proverb
17. Determine what specific goal you want to achieve. Then dedicate yourself to its attainment with unswerving singleness of purpose, the trenchant zeal of a crusader. – Paul J. Meyer
18. If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results. – Jack Dixon
19. Concentration is the secret of strengths in politics, in war, in trade, in short in all management of human affairs. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
20. If you chase two rabbits, both will escape. – Author unknown
21. Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all your energies on a limited set of targets. – Nido Qubein
22. Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow. – Aesop
23. Focus on your strengths, not your weaknesses. Focus on your character, not your reputation. Focus on your blessings, not your misfortunes. – Roy T. Bennett
24. Some people think they are concentrating when they’re merely worrying. – Bobby Jones
25. The man who succeeds above his fellows is the one who early in life clearly discerns his object, and towards that object habitually directs his powers. – Earl Nightingale
26. Correct one fault at a time. Concentrate on the one fault you want to overcome. – Sam Snead
27. Success is simple. Do what’s right, the right way, at the right time. – Arnold Glascow
28. Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days. – Zig Ziglar
29. What we see depends mainly on what we look for. – Sir John Lubbock
30. I just try to concentrate on concentrating. – Martina Navratilova
31. Every great player has learned to two C’s: how to concentrate and how to maintain composure. – Byron Nelson
32. The successful man is the average man, focused. – Author unknown

Which quote jumped out at you and why? I welcome your comments below.