On July 3, the first article in this series “Developing a Warrior Mindset” ran on this website and it was about reaching a decision point concerning a specific course of action in your business. Hopefully you now have made the decision that you will take the necessary steps to overcome procrastination, one of the archenemies, and begin to implement the changes necessary to achieve success in your life and business.
“Receive the Mission” or “mission” is the first of a seven-step process known as the MDMP (Military Decision Making Process) used by the United States Army. The definition of mission as it relates to this is:
• “...a specific task or duty assigned to a person.”
• “...an operation designed to carry out the goals of a specific program.”
I will remind you that someone who wants to develop a warrior mindset is fully engaged and focused on their mission even in the face of adversity. Consider writing your mission statement in long hand. Your mission, not the one that your company has created, the one that your team quotes, or maybe one that you found on the Web and you think is cool. It comes from the heart, your heart.
After you have written it, put it where you can read it every day. Tape it to a mirror, your laptop, your dashboard, whatever, and every day when you get up, dress up and show up, it’s there. Consider it your directive for the day. You are to do something today that will lead to accomplishment of this mission.
The most important weapon you need to accomplish your mission is focus. Remember you can start a fire by holding a magnifying glass steady and allowing the sun’s rays to filter through to tissue paper or dry grass. And to fire up your business, you need focus.
Even if you have struggled with attention deficit for years, you can develop the habit of focus. How do I know? Because I have done this. Although I have never been medically diagnosed, I have all the symptoms. Focus is not, and has never been, easy for me. But you can train and exercise this habit just like any good soldier. Drop you excuses. You must focus your attention on the mission. Each morning, direct your attention to that one single thought—to the exclusion of everything else—your mission.
When you focus on the mission, your goals, your objective, then your energies are not dissipated on irrelevant activities. Your efforts are not scattered and this will enable you to accomplish your mission.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said, “My success, part of it certainly, is that I have focused in on a few things.” Well-known financier T. Boone Pickens said, “The older I get, the more I see a straight path where I want to go. If you’re going to hunt elephants, don’t get off the trail for a rabbit.” General George S. Patton said, “No good decision was ever made in a swivel chair.”
The success of your mission depends upon your ability to focus. I have been told that we all have the same amount of time even though it seems to me that there are days when I got shorted a few hours. But the truth is, we all get the same. How we spend our minutes, our hours, our days, our weeks, our months, our years, is how we spend our life. Some people harness the power of focus, implement that discipline into their life, and accomplish their mission. And some don’t.
Is your time and energy spent accomplishing your mission? Begin to think like a warrior and focus.
