Take a moment, if you will, and think back on some of the great accomplishments you’ve seen achieved in the past. Now consider the people who achieved them, and what it took them to do so.
Oftentimes, what is required is a single-minded focus and determination, a force of will that will allow nothing to stop them. They pick their goal, and then they work at making it happen without anything slowing progress or dissuading them – one hundred percent. Quite honestly, it is what will separate them from all others, and a characteristic that all of us should, if we don’t already, aspire to. However (and this is important), do not confuse “focus and determination” with putting on blinders… because this comes with its own inherent risks.
Now, to be clear – this is not an essay recommending that everything should be done at a slower pace, or that anything less than one hundred percent is acceptable. No, it is more of a precautionary note – choose your focus, give it everything you’ve got, but do so with your eyes wide open and blinders off… because sometimes the path you’ve chosen will have an obstacle that will force you to go over, under, or around it.
An example: someone very close to me was diagnosed with the early stages of type II diabetes a few years back (since this is a public post, I’m not naming names). To his credit, he was determined not to be forced to use insulin to treat it, and began to research and implement nutritional methods to control his blood-sugar. At first, everything was fantastic – his blood-sugar dropped, his weight came down and he returned to “normal” blood-sugar levels. The amount of self-control and adherence that he needed to achieve this was unbelievable, and my respect for his determination grew. BUT: his nutritional choices began to move further and further to a much more extreme level. As it continued, I grew concerned with some of the choices being made – essentially, it got to a point where as long as it wasn’t a carbohydrate (and this includes fresh fruit and vegetables), it was okay. He would sit down and eat a fully loaded burger, just no bun; in order to get enough calories, he began drinking full cream in his coffee; and fats (both saturated and unsaturated) were fine – because they weren’t carbohydrates.
Well, this continued for about three years, and in this time I watched his energy levels drop and saw him begin to battle gout. I suggested numerous times that this was too extreme, that although he’s lost weight and his blood-sugar’s under control, that this was only ONE PART of a much larger puzzle and he should consider his cholesterol and sodium levels as well. He refused to even look at these elements – in fact, I quit saying anything because when I did, I was usually emailed an article found on some website that refuted any of my comments.
The other day, he was at the doctor getting tested for something else, and in the process it was revealed that he had a high degree of plaque build-up in his arteries – if he kept going the direction he was going, he was almost certainly a candidate for heart disease, artherosclerosis or myocardial infarction. The result? He’s going in for all of the tests (MRI, stress tests, etc.), he’s started medication to control his cholesterol, and he’s had to adjust his diet.
The point, quite simply, was not that his focus and drive were wrong – but that if he had taken a moment along the way, and considered other perspectives, he may have been able to do exactly what he’s done, without it taking longer, but without putting himself in the position of risk that he’s in now.
Truly – when you’re driving the highway, you can’t be distracted by everything around you … but you still need to glance in the rearview once in a while and get your bearings.
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