At the beginning of 2016 I was asked by one of my mentors to pick a word that would describe this year. The word I picked was focus. I choose focus because I needed focus in order to crush my goals and have a successful year.

I heard one time that focus stands for Follow One Course Until Successful. I really like this meaning and it adds more to the word than I originally thought. I always interpreted focus to mean paying attention to one thing, being committed to an activity. I though about focus in terms of what was going on in your head and not allowing other topics to enter your mind. Like while I’m trying to write this post, I’m trying to focus on writing and not the other hundred things I need to get done.

But I love “Follow One Course Until Successful” because it takes the word focus to another level for me. It’s not only about keeping one idea in your head, but it also requires action. And when you take action over and over on something you’ll eventually find success. Follow One Course Until Successful also makes success seem so simple. You just have to pay attention to one thing and you will be successful. That’s awesome!

What makes it so hard then?

For myself it’s easy to focus on small tasks that I want to do, but there are times when I’m not in the mood to do something and it makes it really difficult to focus. We always have so many things that we need to worry about and think about, like what bills need to be paid, what am I making for dinner, I need to call my mom, what am I going to do this weekend, let’s check out Facebook, oh right I need to post a picture on Instagram.

I think focusing is also hard when it comes to our success. I’ve already stated that focus means Follow One Course Until Successful. Just ONE course! For me this concept has been a little hard to grasp. There are so many things that I want to do and that I think will help me get to where I want to be in life. But sometimes it’s hard to pick one thing that will help me get there.

I think it’s because success seems so big and one thing seems so little, it doesn’t feel right that one thing will help us get there. But I think the real point is to develop one plan. Develop a plan that focuses on your one big goal. Focus on that one plan until you achieve your goal.

I know it can be hard to focus with all that you have going on in life, but when you know what your goal is, and have a plan to make it happen then you can be unstoppable.

I’ll be honest, I haven’t been as focused as I wanted to be this year. I had a goal in mind, but not much of a plan. I had a basic plan, but I didn’t fully trust it. That’s the other thing with focus, you have to believe that your plan will work. When you believe in your plan and don’t have any doubts that it will work, you’re able to focus. When you believe in your plan, you won’t get distracted by any what ifs and you can go at your plan with full force and confidence.

Decide on your goal. Develop your plan. Believe in your plan. FOCUS. Don’t give up. And success will happen.

Focus, beYOUtiful.