The power of focus.  A person can start a gigantic forest fire with a mere children’s magnifying glass  — the power of harnessed focus.

What would happen, what would you learn, and what would you accomplish if you took the Focused Fifty Challenge?  What is it?

It is focusing on a few important tasks in your life for a period of 50 Days.  10 year plans?  Too much.  Five year plans?  Who knows where we will be!  1 year plans?  We work on them for a couple months, and then cut ourselves tons of slack – “I still have 10 months!”

Why do you think “Year-End” pushes work?  Why does the 40 days of Lent work for some in terms of giving something up?  It is a focused period of time.  There is great power in harnessed focus!

The Focused Fifty neatly slices up into 5 measured time periods so a person can assess and evaluate.

Here is an example.  Today, is my 47^th Blog.  48 days ago I was taking my 3.5 mile walk around our neighborhood and heard this statement:  “When is the best time to plant a tree?  25 years ago!  When is the 2^nd best time to plant a tree?  Today!”

Focused Fifty!  I decided to focus on this idea of having a blog for 50 days.  My most important goal was to make sure to not miss a day.  I am building my own personal momentum, so I want to stay focused.  There is incredible power in harnessed focus.

One additional thought . . . 7 Focused Fifties and you basically have a year.  A person could write down a variety of annual goals, and then instead of working on them over the entire year, break them each up into one of the Focused Fifty segments.

You have to be able to keep track, measure, or keep score on your goal or goals are for your Focused Fifty period.  Examples would be that I have tracked my blog everyday, every week, and every post. I am trying to grow my base of readers, hopefully adding value, and broadening my platform.  (Feel the freedom to share my blog, repost, or retweet . . . I’m just sayin’!)

One other thought regarding accomplishing within your Focused Fifty time frame.  What are the “inputs” and what are the “outputs” that help you toward your goal. You may even want to brainstorm a list of these for each of your Focused Fifty goals.  An “input” is what you put in that will help you toward your FFG (Focused Fifty Goal.)  An “output” is what will be some of the results as you live out your FFG.  It is important to track both.

How about you?  Remember, a FFG is best when it is something in your life that you desperately want to see happen, but you have been putting it on the back burner.  It is not just an everyday task, it is not something small, it is one of your desires for your life, job, ministry, or family that just needs a great KICK –START!

• Get two-hours on your calendar NOW for you to brainstorm with yourself what 3 things you would put on your FFG list.  How would you feel 50 days from now if you moved these few things down the road?

• You have to have one FFG partner!  This is another person who will tell you what their Focused Fifty Goal is as well as check with you each day, and both of you assess each 10 day window – success and failures.

This is about having results – you determine where you want them.  48 days ago I decided to start a blog.  This week, on Wednesday, will be my 50^th entry.  I check-in with my FFG partner everyday, and we look at the readers, page views, etc. and comments each week.  I have experienced breaking through the glass ceiling – and you can too!

Let’s do this!

Eric