When I was 17, I was one of the top youth tennis players in the northeast. Another 17 year old tennis player I knew, wasn’t as good as me. I beat him soundly in every tennis tournament in which we met. But, his family had money. So, they went out and got him a tennis coach.
Within a year he was beating me, barely. But, he was beating me. That coach had transformed him into one of the best young tennis players in the northeast in less than a year. I never forgot that.
To be a great tennis player you can’t have any weaknesses. You have to know what needs improvement. Do you focus on your serve? Do you focus on your volleys up at the net? Do you focus on your overhead, backhand, forehand, groundstrokes, footwork or fitness?
If you focus on the wrong things, you’ll never become a great tennis player. Knowing what to focus on separates the average from the above average. It takes you to the next level.
When you’re pursuing success in a career or business, it’s no different. Focus, alone, is not enough. You need to know what to focus on. If you mis-spend your time focusing on the wrong things, success will remain elusive.
So, how do you know what to focus on?
- Get a Coach – Coaching is gaining prominence in business. If you can afford a business coach, you want to find someone who is a bone fide expert in what you do. If they’re not, you’re wasting your money. Experts see what non-experts cannot see. They can see weaknesses, strengths; they can help you identify the areas you need to focus on.
- Find a Mentor – Typically, this is someone who has at least a decade of experience doing what you are currently doing. If you work for a company, mentors are typically individuals who are at least two levels above where you are. If you’re an entrepreneur, mentors are other successful entrepreneurs, who have done are are still doing, what you are doing.
- Read Books – Books can become your mentors in life. This self-mentoring is an investment that will not pay off for many years. But if you make reading self-help books or biographies of other success people a daily habit, eventually you will gain valuable knowledge and become better at what you do.
- Mastermind Groups – A mastermind group only works if everyone in the group shares something in common. As an example, if you want to become a successful author, the members of your mastermind group should include other authors writing exactly about the same things as you, literary agents, publishers, author-centric publicists, editors, etc. Mastermind groups work best when they are limited to five or six individuals and meet at least once a week.
Knowing what to focus separates the average from the above-average. It accelerates your growth. It transforms you into a virtuoso.
About Thomas C. Corley
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