If you chase two rabbits, both will escape. - Unknown

In his book, the 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader, John Maxwell tells the reason why a lion-tamer brings a stool inside the cage. It is to keep the lion distracted. The lion, seeing the four legs of the chair will get distracted, not knowing which one to focus on. A predicament that many of us face personally and in our business or profession.

As I was building this website and my other website www.mabutingbalita.net, I got distracted by a myriads of items. I began designing and coding only to find out that I can get somebody to make it better and faster. Then I worried about the content, marketing and sales and advertising, and then the online payment gateway.

The result? Nothing happened!

I spent a few weeks denying that I was in going nowhere until my wife asked, “So how is your project doing?” I could only mumble an unintelligible answer. I have lost focus.

Where did I go wrong? I got distracted and forgot all about the the objectives of each website: For www.magandangbalita.com, To bring the good news to you and for www.mabutingbalita.net, To share the Good News, To Live the Word. To focus on providing content instead of doing other things that can be done by others. So I got Eman, an open-source advocate to get the site up and running. Now, I know where I should concentrate and on which part I should delegate.

John Maxwell suggests the folowing guidelines on how to Focus time and energy.

Focus on 70% on Strengths: Effective Leaders who reach their potential spend more time focusing on what they do well than on what they do wrong. To be successful, focus on your strengths and develop them. That’s where you should pour your time, energy and resources.

Focus 25% on New Things: Growth equals change: If you want to get better, you have to keep changing and improving. If you dedicate time to new things related to your area of strength, then you’ll grow as a leader. If you’re through growing, you’re through.

Focus 5% on Areas of Weakness: Nobody can entirely avoid working in areas of weakness. The key is to minimize it as much as possible, and leaders do it by delegating.

Maxwell further suggests:

Work on yourself. You are your greates asset or detriment.

Work at your priorities. You will have to fight for them.

Work in your strengths. You can rach your potential.

Work with your contemporaries. You can’t be effective alone.

You might be a lion, but you might be looking at four legs at a time.