In blog series mooting alternative strategic drivers, Susan Furness shares some subtle nuances to transform the brand experience online.
As I focus on Focusing, the serious side of me is provoked. I mean if I am going to focus, I must give my full attention, right? I need to carve time to focus on the job-in-hand. I need be fully attentive to be in-the-game. I need to be clear on the direction to shoot the winning goal.
Yet, I could confuse the rules of the game. I could miss the net. Indeed, Old Father Time might have other plans, and send in the proverbial curve ball.
Masquerading as observations, these in-the-moment pontificationsconvert a word that has an air of delicacy into the energetic of a chore. A chore that comes with its own rules, regulations, and standard operating procedures. Indeed, smacking of a straitjacket when I favour a wardrobe with flow.
Doh!
This is why I have spent years in the lap of procrastination! I labour along giving Susan-styled lip-service to my kinship with focus that plays out like this :
I am fearful I might –
- roll the wrong dice,
- kick the wrong ball,
- run in the wrong direction,
- get side-lined
- and even benched on the wrong side of the court
- right into the lap of the competition.
No way!
I am Numero Uno. My Enneagramteam shirt says Number 1 – the Perfectionist. But my X factor of the fiction of Focusing is the perfectionist in me brings out the procrastinator in me. The result is I lose my eye on focus to the mouth of ‘I am needed over there right, now’.
Blink! Hello Ego.
This is it. Especially in these curious times, to lead the art of focus requires the practise of letting go. To surrender into the moment of Now is to Focus because we just do not know the future anymore.
Captain Ego is a misfit in this match.
In this moment, I am living proof of the fact of Focusing. I am taking each moment to listen to my heart before I ask my head to let my fingers do the walking as I type this blog.
In this flow of focus, I notice I join ‘many moments of focus’. I name this ‘the Journey of Manifestation: the act of weaving moments of focus to deliver the present (gift) in the present…’.
In her book Edgewalkers; People and Organizations that Take Risks, Build Bridges and Break New Ground, Dr Judi Neal identifies Focusing as one of the five Edgewalker Skills.
The good news is she states ‘the Edgewalker skills can be developed step-by-step through training, attention and practice’.
I’m all in. To deliver transformation now, I must be in infinite practise of letting go of the old strategies that just do not work anymore.
Dr Neal defines the skill of focusing as ‘the ability to be very centered and to give all your attention to an action or project that has significance and importance.’
She goes on to share that ‘manifesting is the ability to take concrete, practical steps and bring a thought, idea or vision into being.’
When I live with focus, I can focus and manifest with grace.I can I shoot into the back of the right net and I am able to cross a finite finishicanhisBlog stands as example. A non-fiction blog that is a manifested fact of focus.
Focus is one of many subtle, smart X factors that can transform Customer Experience in the Digital era.