The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus.

The subject of this email is the end of a quote by Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, which in total reads:

“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus. “

We often confuse working on multiple goals with working on multiple goals at once. This is a huge wasted opportunity. Imagine trying to push five small boxes in five similar directions with each finger at one time. Compare that to how much quicker you can push one box with your whole hand.

That is what we can do when we focus. We can put all of our (and our team’s) energy towards a goal we can get progress towards that goal much quicker. Then we can pull back set our focus on the next goal and go forth again. Note here that we are not saying that you should only have one goal at a time. That is neither realistic nor desirable. But by focus your team on a singular goal you can really move something forward. Then use that same coordinated power to move the next goal forward. We often let our impact and power splinter and do not stop to re-gather ourselves and focus back on the goal at hand.

I recognize there are times when we have to divide our attention. Our aim is to recognize what we have to do and then get the team focused again. You will also see that when you focus on this one goal that somehow, all of the other areas seem to improve as well.

There is a power in focus and we should all look around us and make sure that we have ourselves and our people focused on a single goal and then see what we can do.

You will be amazed. Like the rays of the sun in our quote above, our energy can go everywhere and some impact or we can focus it on one goal as a team and then that’s when things will really start to catch fire. (pun intended)