Tuesday, February 4, 2014

MY 53 DAYS OF FOCUS


THIS was in 2006. It was at the annual convention of the International Central Gospel Church, Destiny Summit, held under the leadership of Pastor Mensa Otabil. One of the guest ministers, Randy Morrison, who is a regular at this conference, preached a message on the subject of “Focus.”

After Morrison handed over the microphone, conference host Otabil stepped up and instructed that each one of us should write down one thing we looked forward to accomplishing by the end of that year. We did a quick calculation and computed that December 31 was 53 days away. I took my pen and note book and scribbled with faith, “In the next 53 days, I will release Winning with Confidence.

From that moment on, my prayer, my conversations, my thoughts, my dreams and fantasies were all beamed on Winning with Confidence. Winning with Confidence was a script that I had put together to publish as my first book. This was when I was an undergrad at Ghana’s premier university at Legon in Accra. I had no money. Not much influence. No audience ready to read my book. I could not distinguish my left from my right in the field of publishing. I was a confused rookie.

But from that night, I decided to focus on what I had and what I could do. I had written a script. At least I had few friends I could talk to about what I had done and what was left to be done. I could pray for God to spring a miracle to fill the gaps I couldn’t fill.

Somehow, things worked together and by November 26 that year, I was ready to launch my first book. And actually, I launched it on December 13, 2006 while I was still a student in pursuit of my first degree.

That was how I discovered the amazing power of focus. Focus is a force that pools people and resources together to produce the dreams we nurture in our hearts in our lives. If you focus on something, you will be drawn towards it. If you focus on something you desire, it will be drawn towards you.

Focus is a magnetic force that brings your dreams together. It keeps your principles in place. What you don’t focus on, you lose. What you ignore ignores you. Don’t look away and expect that you will get somewhere. It is absolutely critical that we keep our attention on the things that matter to us.

If you want things to happen in your life, don’t focus on what you don’t have. Focus on what you need and you will discover how to use what you have to generate what you need.

To focus effectively in your life, 
  1. Have a dream. If you don’t know what you want to achieve, you cannot focus on something. In my case, I knew I wanted to be an incisive and inspiring author.                                                                                                                                                                                        
  2. Identify the resources you require. You must have a fair idea of what it will take to accomplish your dream. To become an author, I knew I had to write, I needed to build a brand that would appeal to people, I needed money to finance my publications and so on.                                                                                                                                                            
  3. Know the resources you have at your disposal. Certainly, you will not have all the resources you require. But surely you will have some. Identify what you have and make a commitment to use what you have to do what it can do. In my journey, I didn’t have money but I had concepts I wanted to project with my writings so I began writing. I didn’t have a name out there but I started talking to my circle of friends. And now, here I am. And here you are reading me.                                                                                                                                     
  4. Don’t stop working until you get there. When you start, you will see yourself moving. You will see yourself getting closer to the destination. Remember that being close is not the same as being there. Keep looking at the goal and keep working. Although I have produced a few more books since the first one and written several articles for newspapers, magazines and online portals, I know I haven’t reached there yet. That’s why I keep working.



It doesn’t matter how far away you are from where you want to get to. If you keep your eye on the ball, you will get things together and you will get there eventually.


© 2014 Terry Mante
CEO, Personal Development Network
Accra, Ghana

Cell: +233.267.186.420

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