Focusing On What’s Right

The other day at the grocery store, I passed two women engrossed in conversation. One woman was saying to the other, “Don’t focus on what’s wrong….” She continued to talk as I passed them in the frozen food aisle, but as I moved away I could no longer hear and missed the rest of the sentence. The tone was kind, and, clearly, advice was being given. I can only imagine that the woman went on to say, “Focus on what’s right.”

And if she did, she wouldn’t be the only one:

• On an individual level, a host of research has emerged that suggests we build success through focusing on our strengths rather than our weaknesses
  
• On an organizational level, the growing field of Appreciative Inquiry (focusing on existing exceptional performance and creating more of it through focus on core strengths) is giving traditional problem solving (think SWOT Analysis with its attendance to weaknesses and threats) a run for its money in the strategic planning process
  
• On a relational level, counselors encourage us to shift our focus to the positive attributes of our loved ones, and away from the negative ones
  
• On a psychological level, it’s been proven over and over that we tend to go toward what we focus on, and create more of it
  

Your turn:

1. CHOOSE one area in your life this week that you know needs a different approach, a different outcome, whatever level it’s on—individual, organizational, relational or psychological
   
2. IDENTIFY—What's going right? What are the strengths? What's just plain good? 
   
3. FOCUS on those things. Think about them. Keep thinking about them. When the temptation comes to focus on the things that aren't great, take a deep breath, let those thoughts go, and go back to the good stuff
   

This has been proven to work on a human level, and you’re human, after all. This may just be the thing. This may just be your thing.