The main thing

“To succeed, always remember that the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” — Brendon Burchard, High Performance Habits

There’s a lot of areas of work that you’re interested, and then there’s the main thing — the one, non-negotiable area of work that you are committed to pursuing no matter what. 

The main thing could be forming partnership with a team that you’re really excited to work with. 

The main thing could be completing a high-impact project that you’ve been dreaming about for years. 

The main thing could be acquiring a specific new skills to facilitate a successful career change. 

The increasing number of distractions competing for your attention every day is a threat to your ability to accomplish your main thing, so it’s important to very clear & explicit about what your main thing is even if that means literally writing it on the wall (in sight, in mind). 

When you make a point to be explicit about what your main thing is, you’re encouraged to recognize and turn away from distractions, which then enables you to allocate unprecedented levels of focus towards accomplishing what you care about most. 

Being able to focus is hard. 

And because it’s hard, it’s rare. 

But if you’re able to learn how to tenaciously focus on your top priorities, in the words of Cal Newport (author of Deepwork), you will have attained “the super power of the 21st century”. 

What’s your main thing and how will you keep it in focus?