Focus Quotes

Focus is the ability to say no to the things you really want to do.

I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time.

Charles Dickens

People were happiest when they were completely absorbed in activities that were difficult but doable, to the point where their brains no longer had space to ruminate about the troubles of daily life.

Laura Vanderkam

If you don’t pay attention to what has your attention you will give it more attention than it deserves.

Stay focused, ignore the distractions, and you will accomplish your goals much faster.

Joel Osteen

Vagueness is the hallmark of the unfocused mind.

One way to boost our will power and focus is to manage our distractions instead of letting them manage us.

Daniel Goleman

The ability to focus attention on important things is a defining characteristic of intelligence.

Robert J Shiller

Focus on possibilities rather than your limitations.

Nick Vujicic

It soon became clear that doing one thing better and better might be more satisfying than staying an amateur at many different things.

Angela Duckworth

What comes first, the compass or the clock? Before one can truly manage time (the clock), it is important to know where you are going, what your priorities and goals are, in which direction you are headed (the compass). Where you are headed is more important than how fast you are going. Rather than always focusing on what’s urgent, learn to focus on what is really important.

To do two things at once is to do neither.

Publius Syrus

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

Steven Covey

Think of many things; do one.

Portuguese Proverb

Focus is a matter of deciding what things you’re not going to do.

John Carmack

Focus on remedies, not faults.

Jack Nicklaus

Instead of focusing on doing less or doing more, focus on doing what you value. Instead of focusing on having less or having more, focus on loving what you have.

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.

Thoreau

Focus on the important, not the urgent.

Distractions secretly steal the most precious thing you have in your life – time.

Kunal

What is the ONE thing I can do such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?

Gary Keller

The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once.

Samuel Smiles

A clear vision, backed by definite plans, gives you a tremendous feeling of confidence and personal power.

Brian Tracy

Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.

Zig Ziglar

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.

Aristotle Onassis

Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.

Alexander Graham Bell

Successful people maintain a positive focus in life no matter what is going on around them. They stay focused on their past successes rather than their past failures, and on the next action steps they need to take to get them closer to the fulfillment of their goals rather than all the other distractions that life presents to them.

Jack Canfield

I don’t care how much power, brilliance or energy you have, if you don’t harness it and focus it on a specific target, and hold it there you’re never going to accomplish as much as your ability warrants.

Zig Ziglar

That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.

Steve Jobs

Focus your energies on answers – not excuses.

William Arthur Ward

You don’t get results by focusing on results. You get results by focusing on the actions that produce results.

Mike Hawkins

My success, part of it certainly, is that I have focused in on a few things.

Bill Gates

Success demands singleness of purpose.

Vince Lombardi

Focus does not mean saying yes, it means saying no.

Steve Jobs

Only through focus can you do world-class things, no matter how capable you are.

Bill Gates

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

Og Mandino

Effectiveness begins with elimination. Choose your ignorances as carefully as your interests.

Stoic Emperor

Too much sugar leads to a heavy body, and too many distractions lead to a heavy mind.

Naval Ravikant

Knowing what to leave out is just as important as knowing what to focus on.

Warren Buffett

Your attention has value. Don’t give it away. They will say it’s important but it’s not. Stay focused.

Maxime Lagacé

Flow follows focus.

Steven Kotler

FOCUS – Follow One Course Until Successful.

Robert T Kiyosaki

High-Quality Work Produced = (Time Spent) x (Intensity of Focus).

Cal Newport

Re-focus. What’s vital?

Thibaut

Infinite shiny objects, finite time.

Jack Butcher

Focus is the art of knowing what to ignore.

James Clear

The modern impediment to learning is attention, not access.

Stoic Emperor

These three things leads to positive non-linear results: clarity, focus, and time. Simple but not easy.

Shane Parrish

The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything.

Warren Buffett

Focus is more important than genius.

Greg McKeown

If you don’t pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, it will take more of your attention than it deserves.

David Allen

To produce at your peak level you need to work for extended periods with full concentration on a single task free from distraction.

Cal Newport

When life gets blurry, adjust your focus.

Until my ONE thing is done, everything else is a distraction.

Gary Keller

99.99% of everything is noise.

Michael Saylor

Where you are headed is more important than how fast you are going. Rather than always focusing on what’s urgent, learn to focus on what is really important.

Stephen R Covey

Multitasking is the sign of a stressed and diseased mind simultaneously doing many things poorly. Quality work and quality thinking require quiet focus.

Thibaut

Most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you’ll have more time, and more tranquillity. Ask yourself at every moment, “Is this necessary?”

Marcus Aurelius

Those who focus best are relatively immune to emotional turbulence.

Daniel Goleman

Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.

Lin Yutang

Your destiny is to fulfill those things upon which you focus most intently. So choose to keep your focus on that which is truly magnificent, beautiful, uplifting and joyful. Your life is always moving toward something.

Ralph Marston

When walking, walk. When eating, eat.

Zen Proverb

Focus 90% of your time on solutions and only 10% of your time on problems.

Anthony J D’Angelo

Champions get what they want because they know what they want. They have a vision that keeps them motivated and efficiently on track. They see it, feel it, and experience it in their minds and hearts. What is success for you? You won’t get there without knowing what it feels and looks like.

Dr Phil

Concentrated attention is the collection of units of power on a chosen point of intention.

James Arthur Ray

I succeeded because I have a long attention span.

Charlie Munger

Concentration is the secret of strength in politics, in war, in trade, in short in all management of human affairs.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I don’t focus on what I’m up against. I focus on my goals and I try to ignore the rest.

Venus Williams

Success at anything will always come down to this: focus and effort. And we control both.

Dwayne Johnson

I learned that focus is key. Not just in your running a company, but in your personal life as well.

Tim Cook

The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.

Sherlock Holmes

People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.

Steve Jobs

Keep things simple, focused and effective by single-tasking.

Leo Babauta

Focus like a laser, not a flashlight.

Michael Jordan

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The first requisite of success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem without growing weary.

Thomas Edison

Do whatever you do intensely.

Robert Henri

Focus on remedies, not faults.

Jack Nicklaus

Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.

Greg Anderson

For a person to become deeply involved in any activity it is essential that he knows precisely what tasks he must accomplish, moment by moment.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Goals provide the energy source that powers our lives. One of the best ways we can get the most from the energy we have is to focus it. That is what goals can do for us; concentrate our energy.

Denis Waitley

Good performance is about the capacity to focus and concentrate.

Betty Buckley

Starve your distractions, feed your focus.

Focus on your strengths, not your weaknesses.

Gary Vaynerchuk

Being busy is cheap, focus is expensive.

Brian Norgard

Your future is created by what you do today, not tomorrow.

Robert T Kiyosaki

Set your target and keep trying until you reach it.

Napoleon Hill

Don’t make excuses for why you can’t get it done. Focus on all the reasons why you must make it happen.

Ralph Marston

To succeed with deep work you must rewire your brain to be comfortable resisting distracting stimuli.

Cal Newport

Don’t worry about what you can’t control. Our focus and energy needs to be on the things we can control. Attitude, effort, focus – these are the things we can control.

Tim Tebow

Directed attention results in precise and effective action. Divided attention results in clumsy and inconsistent action.

Stoic Emperor

Turn off the news. Delay the unessential. Reduce your appointments. Slow down. Break tasks into small portions. Seek help. Focus on little pleasures. Count your blessings. Sleep. Drink more water. Take a walk. Breathe deeply. Sit quietly and let every muscle relax.

Thibaut

The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Optimal experience is thus something that we make happen.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

All great achievements are the result of sustained focus over time – all of them.

Gary Keller

Focus more on your desire than on your doubt, and the dream will take care of itself.

Mark Twain

It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?

Henry David Thoreau

Be on guard. The road widens, and many of the detours are seductive.

David Foster Wallace

In an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.

Herbert A Simon

Your distraction is someone else’s profit center.

Jack Butcher

Focus on the solution, not on the problem.

Jim Rohn

Stop managing your time. Start managing your focus.

Robin Sharma

If you try to do too much, you will not achieve anything.

Confucius

I think the lack of precision and deep focus is why it took me years to build up my work.

Gil Kane

Don’t take breaks from distraction. Instead take breaks from focus.

Cal Newport

People who consistently win have a clear and thoughtful strategy. They know what they need to do and when they need to do it. They write it down so they stay on course, and avoid any alternative that does not get them closer to the finish line.

Dr Phil

The three pillars on which I believe any business success is based are: Persistence, Enthusiasm and Focus.

Max Markson

To create something exceptional, your mindset must be relentlessly focused on the smallest detail.

Giorgio Armani

The faster and busier things get, the more we need to build thinking time into our schedule. And the noisier things get, the more we need to build quiet reflection spaces in which we can truly focus.

Greg McKeown

People who can focus, get things done. People who can prioritize, get the right things done.

John Maeda

I learned long ago to focus on things you can control and don’t even pay attention to things you don’t.

Bryan Cranston

We can always choose to perceive things differently. You can focus on what’s wrong in your life, or you can focus on what’s right.

Marianne Williamson

When you focus on being a blessing, God makes sure that you are always blessed in abundance.

Joel Osteen

When you slow down, you can focus better. It’s hard to focus if you’re moving to fast.

Leo Babauta

Focus on what you control. Your habits. Your responses. Your ability to learn. Your ability to think. These are controllable and give you massive tailwinds.

Shane Parrish

Whenever your mind is totally absorbed in whatever activities you are performing, your mind will remain calm and content.

Chin-Ning Chu

Mobile phones should be called distraction machines. Checking your distraction machine first thing in the morning is not the ideal way to start your day.

Muneed Ali

Too many people believe that everything must be pleasurable in life, which makes them constantly search for distractions and short-circuits the learning process.

Robert Greene

Deep thinking demands sustaining a focused mind. The more distracted we are, the more shallow our reflections; likewise, the shorter our reflections, the more trivial they are likely to be.

Daniel Goleman

Information diets are “additive through subtraction”, like literal diets. Don’t focus on what you should consume but on what you shouldn’t.

Michael

You have got to have discipline and focus – on the customer and how you run the business.

Jim Cantalupo

You have to figure out what that is, and you have to make a plan to get to it. And the plan has got to have a timeline. You have to choose something that you can afford to do and then lock it in and passionately do it.

Dr Phil

If you want to win the war for attention, don’t try to say ‘no’ to the trivial distractions you find on the information smorgasbord; try to say ‘yes’ to the subject that arouses a terrifying longing, and let the terrifying longing crowd out everything else.

Cal Newport

Make sure every day you do what matters most. When you know what matters most, everything makes sense. When you don’t know what matters most, anything makes sense.

Gary Keller

It’s not always that we need to do more but rather that we need to focus on less.

Nathan W Morris

The time that leads to mastery is dependent on the intensity of our focus.

Robert Greene

Attention works much like a muscle. Use it poorly and it can wither; work it well and it grows.

Daniel Goleman

You need to be doing fewer things for more effect instead of doing more things with side effects.

Gary Keller

The more you focus, the more that focus becomes a habit.

Charles Duhigg