Not long ago my wife bought my son a magnifying glass. We were playing around with it in the backyard when my primary school days came back to me and I showed him how to focus the sunlight and burn the edge of a leaf.  Remember doing that? If you’ve ever used a magnifying glass like this you know it’s all about focusing the light to a single point. In fact, any tool you use is about focusing your energy. Take a knife, for example. All a knife does is focus the energy your hand produces to an edge – the cutting edge.  

It’s the same with life. There is huge potential when we focus our time, money, energy, influence, and other resources we have. Not having a focus is like trying to cut a steak with your elbow. Oh, you may be sincere and even put a fair bit of elbow grease into it, but without the focus of the blade it’s going to be hard work to achieve anything. 

So what do you want to focus on this year? Do you want to be financially better off, have a better marriage, be more emotionally secure, or build your business? If you can focus your resources and build healthy habits, you’ll see results. If not, they’ll be next year’s New Year’s resolutions. We all know what that feels like…

Now for the problem. It’s really hard to focus. Well it can be. But here’s a life hack I’ve learned from some people I look up to. When you build the rhythms of your life around your goals it takes less willpower to focus. You like to eat regularly, right? Sleep every night? These are the basic rhythms of your life. They are important too. Your circadian rhythm is a basic 24hr rhythm that tells you when you need to rest. Have you ever had jetlag? Yep… you’re out of rhythm. Just like this, everything that works well has a rhythm to it. This is true of your car, job, the ecosystem, seasons, and the solar system in general. It’s a universal principle and we can’t get away from it.

So if you want to accomplish something, go with the tide, understand how the world works, and make it work for you. When you make a plan and work it into your schedule it becomes part of your routine, the new rhythm of your life. In part, that’s what things like budgets, business plans, and schedules help us with. I’ve learned to build habits rather than just trying to focus by sheer willpower. Now this is a big topic and we can’t go into much more detail here. But we’ve been covering this at church so if you’d like to listen further check out www.lifeandlegacy.church/messages-a-word-for-you-1/

The Apostle Paul, a very important biblical character, says, “…But one thing I do: Forget what is behind and strain toward what is ahead…” (Philippians 3:13)

Kim Anthony is the Senior Pastor of Life&Legacy Church at Hillcrest