Monday Motivation 5/1/2000

Concentration

I don't know about you, but when I was a child, I did unspeakable things.

I would get a magnifying glass, and burn ants on the sidewalk.

I'd also burn dry leaves, grass (nice black spots all over the lawn), any assorted paper that happened to be lying around (the afternoon newspaper works really well), and a number of other things that have slipped my mind.

I tried burning the kid next door. She was always too fast for me.

What makes a magnifying glass burn stuff? Why, it's concentration, of course.

You take the magnifying glass, focus the sun's rays in a pinpoint on whatever you're trying to set on fire, and go to it. Pretty soon, a curl of smoke starts to rise from the target, and next thing you know, you've created a range fire.

Most of us have tried this trick with a magnifying glass, at one time or another. Some of us still do it, on the mistaken assumption that it's a good way to pick up on girls. Few of us, however, learn how to take the principle of the magnifying glass, and integrate it into our personal success approach.

Think a second. If you wish to pound a nail into a board, are you going to use a hammer, or a refrigerator? Both are made of steel. Both are pretty hard. The refrigerator is heavier, but the hammer will do a better job. Why? It's the principle of the magnifying glass...concentration.

The hammer concentrates all the leverage and power of your swing into a very small area...in this case, the head of the hail. The nail concentrates that swing even further...down the shaft, to the point of the nail. Concentration is what gets the job done.

So. Here you are at work. You've got a thousand different things keeping you from doing the one thing that you need to do. If you use a non-concentrated approach to accomplishing a task, it likely takes a long time to accomplish, if ever. Concentrate on it, and you use all your efforts at achieving the task.

If you want to start a fire in your life, remember the magnifying glass: Concentrate!

Just watch out for range fires.

Copyright, 2000, by Daryl R. Gibson and WeekdayWisdom.com. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted for the non-commercial use of this document as long as it retains this copyright and all lines and images remain intact. This does not allow the compilation and marketing of this material, whether for commercial or non-commercial use. Join us at http://www.WeekdayWisdom.com.