Focus Determines Outcome

Anything you place your focus on grows. Focus on problems and you'll get more problems; focus on solutions and you'll get more solutions. This isn't hyperbole; it's a fact as real as gravity. Your focus is so valuable that corporations spend millions every year on ad agencies and social media platforms to tap into it. If they can get your attention and retain it, their success is guaranteed. But they can't succeed without your focus.

And you can't succeed without your focus, either.

Focus on your health and it'll improve; focus on attracting wealth and your bank account will soar. Focus on your family and your bonds will strengthen; focus on education and your skills will multiply. The trick is to focus on what you want your life to look and feel like instead of what you're trying to avoid because it's your energy that determines your results.

For example, focusing on your lack of money produces a different result than focusing on the abundance in your life and living in gratitude for what you already have. Focusing on wealth creation with faith and enthusiasm will produce a much different result than focusing on why you aren't financially secure, or why you can't seem to "catch a break."

Focusing on a disease with dread and despair will produce different results than focusing on feelings of health, strength, and vitality. Focusing on what's wrong with your relationship will amplify those issues while focusing on why your relationship matters will reveal ways to overcome misunderstandings or differences between you.

By focusing on identifying your goals and solutions, your next steps will become apparent. But focusing on things outside of your control will drain you of the necessary resources to change the only thing you can change: yourself.

Distractions abound and if you've followed me for any amount of time you know that I consider pointing out the many problems we face today to be a massive waste of time. I did it for years until I realized that:

1. Nothing changed.

2. Most events are beyond my control.

3. Investing my energy in identifying solutions for my own life produced better results.

Identifying problems is fine if we're able to cull solutions, which is why so many people today are still in denial about worldwide current events: when a solution isn't apparent, the mind will deny there's a problem. It's a survival mechanism that activates automatically so that we can continue to function in undesirable circumstances.

There's always a solution. When it seems that there's no solution to a problem, it's a sign that we haven't identified the real problem, so we aren't asking the right question. For example, the question most people today are asking is:

"How do we stop them?"

The answer to that isn't easy or palatable to most people, because it comes at great personal cost. But if we changed the question to:

"What opportunities do these events present, how do they align with my own goals,

and what steps can I take to benefit from these opportunities?"

Then the answers to these challenges become clear. Let's take Artificial Intelligence as an example and see how asking the right questions about Ai expands our options:

Is Ai taking over? Yes.

Will some jobs be lost? Yes. Jobs will both be lost and created.

Can it be stopped? It's unlikely.

Ok, so if there's no way to stop it, is there a way to benefit from it? Yes, there are plenty. If you're tech-savvy and interested in attaining new skills, you can acquire Ai training, and perhaps create an Ai app of your own that you can then market. It can streamline your workload and accelerate innovation. If you're a business owner, it can help you gain incredibly detailed information about your customers and their preferences, helping you create products that match their needs.

I'm not a business owner; can I use Ai to increase my wealth? Investing in Ai technology and the mineral resources that its technology depends on are both great options, especially while Ai is still in its 'infancy' stage.

When the internet was in its infancy stage, those who understood its potential were able to exploit it. Millionaires were created in a few short years. Today, most of us can't imagine life without the internet. The same will be true of Ai. Failure to adapt to new circumstances is disastrous, for individuals as well as businesses. Blockbuster once dominated the movie rental industry but failed to adapt to the internet, which is why they passed on the opportunity to buy Netflix when it was offered in 2000; shortly thereafter, Netflix became the new king of film rentals and Blockbuster suffered the fate of the dinosaur. The same thing happened to Kodak when it failed to embrace digital technology. Both Kodak and Blockbuster were focused on a model that no longer served them and this brought about their ruin.

So, while the vast majority of Americans are focusing on the great theater - politics and 'world events,' illusions that are controlled by larger forces and that most individuals can't change without great effort and personal cost - another demographic is focusing on the opportunities already presented by Ai. Who do you think will fare better in the next five to ten years?

Ai and politics are just one example of situations where people squander their focus either on situations that they cannot change, outdated models, or frivolities that don't produce any value. The point that I want you to take away from this post is that your focus - and the energy, or emotion, behind it - is what determines the quality of your life.

So...what are you focusing on?