MKE Week 12 – Focus

Part Twelve of the Master Key System talks a lot about focus.  This is important, and not just the actual focus and concentration, but what you focus on.

Back in Week 6, Haanel spoke of focus:

Compare the power of attention with a magnifying glass in which the rays of sunlight are focused.  They possess no particular strength when the glass is moved about, but let the rays be focused on one spot and the effects are apparent.  Charles Haanel, Master Key System, 6:20

And this week, I read the following:

But your ideal must be sharp, clear-cut, definite; to have one ideal ideal today, another tomorrow, and a third next week, means to scatter your forces, and accomplish nothing.

If a sculptor started out with a piece of marble and a chisel, and changed his ideal every fifteen minutes, what result could he expect?  And why should you expect any different results in molding the greatest and most plastic of all substances, the only real substance?  Charles Haanel, Master Key System, 12:6-7

This passage reminds me of that beautiful statue in Florence, the David.  Can you imagine if Michelangelo changed his ideal every fifteen minutes while he was sculpting?  What would David look like then?  I had heard that the original was carved from a single block of marble, but that marble was flawed.  Other sculptors were discouraged but Michelangelo held his purpose in focus, saying “I created a vision of David in my mind, and simply carved away everything that was not David.”

Another favourite book of mine is The Greatest Salesman in the World, Part II, The End of the Story.  This is an excellent follow-up to the first book; and in it Hafid, the camel-boy turned salesman shares his Ten Vows of Success.  The Seventh Vow is “Always will I throw my whole self into the task at hand.”  Here are a few quotes from that chapter:

It is those who concentrate on but one thing at a time who advance in this world.

Never again do I only lay my hands on my work when I should have committed my entire being.

I do whatever I am doing, henceforth, as if there were nothing else in the world of any importance.

What an immense power over life is the power of possessing direct aims.

I decide my goals and keep them forever in my thoughts.  We find only what we seek with all our hearts.  If I look for nothing in particular, I find just that.

Now I know that when I pursue a worthy goal, steadily and persistently, with all the powers of my mind, I succeed.

If I focus the rays of sun with a burning glass, even in the coldest days of winter, I can kindle a fire with ease.

Always will I throw my whole self into the task at hand.  Og Mandino, The Greatest Salesman in the World, Part II, The End of the Story, page 111-115

It seems to me that Og Mandino could be a student of Haanel!

Another student of Haanel is my friend Michael Puffer, who wrote a blog post about Focused Positivity, which is Energy for your Purpose.  Have a look.

As I said earlier, it’s not just the focus, but what you focus on.  The good news is that YOU get to decide what to focus on.  That is what makes the Master Key Experience so special, the emphasis on becoming self-directed thinkers, so we can find our purpose, then focus on moving toward that new reality.

So, you must first decide what you want, hold that clear mental focus, allow yourself time and place, then put your whole self into the task at hand!