Its not Hocus Pocus , its all about Focus. Review on Power of Focus - Mark Hansen

Living in Metro cities commands a very high level of stress, sometimes a leisurely talk with ones family becomes a luxury. Impending deadlines , need for further education all makes us concentrate on different activities and not being successful , sometimes to more than one. Why is that sometimes we end up being a Jack of all trades and not being to be overtly successful in a particular trade.

Management is sometimes very funny , it doesn’t have a particular way of doing something, its not bound by rules or within certain parameters. Probably that’s why you find so many management books , all having various angles, each trying to be more abstract than the other. The Chicken Soup for the soul series was a money spinner commercially and also a revered Management book, its logic being used by many and found to be successful.. Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Lee Hewitt who were the authors of this book have sprung back with The Power of Focus.

The Aim of the authors

Here the authors harp on the necessity of balancing and managing our day to day lives in spite of time, Financial and balancing between the fine line of Home and Work Pressures. Focusing is something we don’t often and focus on our Strengths is a rarity and that’s something to be done by all of us. The authors assure us that we are not going to be guinea pigs of this theory as this is tried and tested on many clients and the authors have around 79 years of combined experience which is being shown in all its glory in this book. Creating and practicing habits and more importantly focusing on the good habits and weeding out the negative ones is the order of the day. The authors reiterate that all the strategies in this book cannot be done overnight and will require practice ,persistence and perseverance and there is no Quick Fix formulae ever in self development.

The Strategies

There are 10 Strategies underlined in this book. Your habits determine you future is the first strategy and there is an attempt to get the logic into the reader that Successful people have equally successful habits and unsuccessful people don’t. There is quite a large list of the common Bad habits so that one can find a Bad habit Quotient and believe me, all of us generally get red in the face as most of us find us habits in that list. Positive and Negative are other sides of a coin and form a part of every ones life , but turning negative consequences into positive rewards , simply by changing you habits is what the author strategizes . There is a 3 pointer to help everyone and that’s to Identify the bad habit , define a good habit for the same and have an action plan to implement the same. Focus on Natural Talents and discover your brilliance. One must learn to let go and not hold all the work for themselves , the basic rule of management i.e Delegation is seldom practiced . There are 4 D’s in this Strategy , Dump the Work that’s unimportant, Delegate the ones that need to be done, Defer the less important tasks and Do the ones one High Priority ones.

Do you see the Big Picture. Most of us love cricket, Tennis and other sports and also love the Camera shot of the Stadium or ground when taken from the helicopter or blimp. This must be used by us to see the big picture by developing unusual clarity. All of us have goals but the purpose must be undermined before setting them. Remember a Brilliant idea without action is like Tendulkar playing Cricket without a bat. Creating Optimum Balance is important in our lives. Work when you Work and Play when you play. Don’t get into the monotony trap, try and be different. I am giving my example here , regarding reviews , there was a time when I was frustrated as I got few readership of my reviews as I used to follow a formula. Its my endeavor to be different at times and apart from the readership it does give an immense sense of achievement. To maximize your progress , take regularly breaks to re energize. I personally use this prior to reading this book … whenever I sit late for work I ensure I play a game of table tennis in our sports room in the office for half and hour, this helps me as I work constantly with figures and a number here and there makes a difference.

Building Excellent Relationships is very importantly in today’s lives. Prosperity in ones life depends on who you know and not what you know. Morpheus the legendary character of The Matrix says Don’t think you are .. know you are . Read this and ponder over this. The Confidence factor is important and confidence always stems from experience. Every time you think you cannot , always revisit a former triumph and you can get the confidence to act on the current task. Remember Everything you want …. Is on the other side of Fear. Always Seeking Knowledge forms the acronym called ASK, Always ask and you will receive , never shy from asking . Consistent Persistence is also another strategy . In Life you don’t have to do anything … just be consistent. All broken relationships can be traced back to broken agreements, Tru integrity is based on keeping your agreements. When you always tell the truth, people trust you. Take Decisive action ,Active decision is important for focusing on your goals. God gives every bird its food but …he does not throw it into the nest.

All of us are Living on Purpose , one must always Find your purpose , discover it and finally develop it. Life is short … so focus today on making a difference.

The Verdict

Management books talk a lot and give different concepts , never undermine a concept , however frail or illogical it may seem. The best always lies in understanding a concept, taking its positive points and implementing it. The same is the case with this book …the start of the book is impressive and has simple and achievable practices , something we can relate to. Its also positive sounding and very case study oriented which makes it more believable.

However it falls into the typical “Management Book Trap ” giving the same fundas over and again , at times it looks very structured and rule based and also sounds like a sermon at times.

This book can be used as a companion and not as a rule book, doesn't promise you results unless you strive to achieve it , its more like a pep up machine to spur you … in achieving something !!!

Remember the words from Satishkl - Finally, Book or no book , if there is NO Focus then your life is all but a Bogus