Mike Staver's Blog

Things are tough out there right now and I thought this might be useful to review.

In challenging times, your success has everything to do with where your focus is. The brain is designed for only one purpose…to keep you alive!

Any time the mind feels threatened, it wants to focus on that threat. This makes sense if the threat is a hungry saber tooth tiger lurking outside your cave, but not so much if it’s not a survival issue! Non-life-threatening challenges don’t warrant the energy we often give them.

I am not suggesting that you adopt a value of carelessness, but rather that you change where you spend your thought energy. Don’t minimize the reality of life’s difficulties. Do approach challenges with balanced thinking and appropriate focus.

I have found that people who do well in tough times are not necessarily the stronger ones or the smarter ones. Those who travel through the valleys successfully tend to have their minds set on certain things. Whether the challenge you’re facing is as simple as not getting a sale you really needed or as major as a death in your family, it doesn’t have to derail you.

Here are five things to think about when times are tough:

1. Family and friends are long-term; money is short-term.
2. One good opportunity will change the entire direction of your circumstances.
3. Spend 90 percent of your time focused on the opportunities and 10 percent of your time focused on solving the problem.
4. Focus on what you are becoming — not on what you are or on what you were.
5. Schedule a fixed amount of time each day to deal with challenges. Once that time is over, MOVE ON to the things that will move you past the challenging time.