Are you good with keys? Unfortunately, I am not. Past lectures to my children haunt my brain. “Put important things in important places”, I would scold. Losing my keys is a matter of losing focus. I am simply not engaged when I take my keys from the ignition. In an age of constant distraction, it is no surprise.

The one vital key in business and life is focus. Again–no surprise. With open offices and social media, and everyone doing the work of three people, focus the easiest key to lose.  In order to put all of your concentration in one basket, you must consciously choose to disregard another. And choosing is where many entrepreneurs get hung. We are infected with the FOMO virus. The Fear Of Missing Out. It is truly epidemic. Like Pavlov’s dogs, we salivate at the sound of alerts and bells. Convinced that we will miss some essential bone, we invite the distraction.

A skit by the Blue Man Group illustrated the FOMO phenomena very well. Seated in their dark and intimate little theatre in Chicago, three disturbingly blue guys move on to the stage, each bearing a flip chart. Each blue guy opens his chart to the first page. The first page on each contained the same identical warning. “Do not try to read all the charts. You will miss the entire message.” Each disturbingly blue guy then began to turn the pages of their charts, pausing just long enough to give you time to read only one of the three charts. Each chart, of course, contained a different message, to illustrate their point.

For me, it was mental gymnastics. The temptation to read all three charts was obsessive. True to common entrepreneurial self-delusion, I told myself I really could read all three, even though I had just been warned. The next few seconds, sure enough, proved them right. Next I was torn between charts. I wanted to receive the best message. So I tried to quickly scan the messages to find the best message, still attempting to read all three charts. I reluctantly gave up and chose one chart, and was rewarded with the punch line. Though I am sure the message was clever, I do not remember what it was. It was not memorable. And it does not matter. The skit was the message.

The skit was a perfect allegory of life and business. We cannot do it all. We cannot read all those blog posts. We cannot learn everything we want to learn. We cannot manage and sell thousands of disparate products. We cannot serve all people. If we try, we will certainly fail. We will do a poor job at all, and especially where it translates to our visual branding.

Focus is a choice. When we choose to focus all of our energy and cognition on one thing, we are like sunbeams through a magnifying glass. We can burn our way through any task in far less time.  When we concentrate our wits on one bit of information, we can absorb and use more of it than gleaning snippets from seven articles. With our thoughts focused, we are able to see new patterns, create new connections, and find new solutions–solutions that we would have missed trying to multi-task.

In your daily battle with FOMO, free your brain to divide and conquer. The antidote is to choose your focus.

That’s this week’s Imagination Hat!

To find out more about The Blue Man Group, visit www.blueman.com

We believe in the power of words. Right now on our Facebook Page, we are conducting the iCan quote contest. We need to know which quote helps you to focus the most. If your favorite quote is not listed there, feel free to post your own! Link to the album is HERE