Focus - that level of flow so good that nothing can distract you from what you're doing.
When you're living in the fast lane, your focus is on achieving success, not on entertaining distractions.
Wealth Strategist and New York Times Bestselling Author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, T. Harv Eker, has made crazy millions and learned the hard way, thankfully for the rest of us, which sure-fire paths lay the foundation for true victory.
Harv was too, once upon a distant memory, caught in the trap of ‘Shiny Object Syndrome’ and cured himself as soon as reality dawned on him and he learned a better way of being.
Let’s explore his solution to this problem and see how we can do it too!
According to Harv, a great deal of people believe they’re living their lives in ‘the fast lane’, although what they’re actually doing is prancing from one momentary fad to anything that follows.
This might create the illusion of change but seldom generates real success.
For more than a decade, Harv was blinded by shiny things.
Don’t most of us have the same problem of trying to skip into the fast lane only to venture into oncoming traffic instead?
What should we do about it?
Harv has two words: Focus and Commitment.
Harv shares that he spent 12 long years doing everything he could think of to achieve success...
Trying to remain in what he understood as ‘the fast lane’ and still failed despite having 14 different jobs in addition to having 12 separate businesses in the same period.
Do you reckon he was focused?
No.
What do you imagine his result was?
Broke.
The endless loop of making a little, then going broke.
Making a lot, and guess what?
Broke.
He became fed up.
Jumping and dancing around with desperate disaster and then he says, he realized it’s the jumping around that’s killing him as he never followed through completely because the next big thing was always on the horizon.
And each time he believed the next thing would be smarter, better, faster.
When this new thing was presented to me, I thought, ‘Why should I stick with this thing that’s really hard?’ -T. Harv Eker
Such was the habit, he admits.
I mean, why would he choose something really hard?
The fact is, it was not hard when he chose it, he says.
It was actually beautiful but he made it hard because that shiny object glistens until you experience it up close.
Then, Harv warns, you see it for the lifeless dull thing it truly is.
Harv learned the mammoth lesson that no external circumstance or vehicle will make or break you.
He spent 12 years trying to find the ‘right vehicle’ to discover no such thing exists.
Instead, what he says he learned is that...
There is only the Right version of YOU, within the vehicle you love.
Before breaking out of his vicious back-and-forth-broke cycle, Harv mentions that a close friend called to entice him with another shiny object that was working really well for him.
Harv’s response? “Oh my god. Thanks for letting me know.”
He thought this was his dream coming true because someone he knows is doing great and making between $20,000 and $30,000 a week and soon so will he… but it was not to be.
Instead, after 6 months, Harv admits that he was broke (surprise), while his friend was a millionaire doing better than ever.
Harv asked the million-dollar question: “How on earth could you be doing so great, and I’m doing so bad?”
Finally, Harv looked in the mirror, admitting, “Do you know what? It’s not the business. It’s me.”
Although emotional about this revelation, it was pivotal for him to realize that he needed to work on himself and do something he really enjoyed.
You might know this, or not, but Harv became a millionaire two and a half years later.
And you can do the same.
Harv followed through on his commitment to maintaining focus on only one thing until he got rich.
Of course, you don’t have to do the same unless you’re serious about succeeding…
Commit to something for a minimum of three years. Why three years? That’s how long it takes to systemize something so it can work without you. -T. Harv Eker
And don’t consider leaving it, says Harv.
It’s like being in the Army.
You’re there for 3 whole years, that’s it.
There’s no getting out of it.
You’re committed!
It might not appear very ‘fast lane’, but it really is.
Although three years sounds like a long time, Harv assures that a focused 3 year period will be far more rewarding — and you smash your targets faster than in an erratic one year.
Harv studies much Zen and Buddhism and refers to a particular saying:
“Thinking about a better tomorrow is what prevents me from having a better today.”
He’s derived some personal mantras, and here's one you can also apply:
“Thinking about having a better business/job is what prevents me from succeeding in this business/job.”
Why so?
Because Harv has learned and he's telling you now that you take your mind off the present moment, not realizing that right now is the only time you can truly be successful and happy.
Tomorrow you can’t be successful, because tomorrow doesn’t exist yet.
You can’t be successful yesterday, because the past is gone.
That shiny object blinds you when it steals your mind away from what must be done today.
Harv explains that you reach focus through experimentation.
You say, ‘I’m going to do an experiment on myself. I’m going to commit to something for three years, and I’m not quitting. Even if I go broke, I’m not quitting.’ -T. Harv Eker
And guess why you won’t go broke...
You’ll excel because your focus will be on it.
No thoughts on trying to switch to the ‘fast lane’ will haunt you because you’ll realize soon enough that you are in the fast lane.
The objects can’t be any shinier.
This is one of the greatest lessons that Harv says changed his life for the better.
Now it's your turn!
It is said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, each time expecting a different result.
Therefore, learn to do things differently, starting with changing your mindset about yourself, your finances, your now, and your tomorrow.
What you focus on expands and if you stay the proven course, not only will you reach your success-destination, but the journey will be one of actual growth while you transform your habits from woeful to wonderful.
Since all that glitters isn’t gold, unearth the gold within you and present that to the world.
Don’t let the illusions of life in the (someone else’s) fast lane distract you from the now.
You are already in the fast lane when you’re doing what you love and monetize it responsibly.
Learn HOW!
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Has your Mind ever wondered...
Living your dream, passion, and purpose - a meaningful life where you’re financially free, building wealth, maintaining healthy, happy relationships while you’re balanced, secure, and growing with a mindset geared for success.
When you’re constantly being distracted by shiny objects, never completing what you started, or seldom starting anything because you allow fear to stop you.
Movement, momentum, and progress in action, and on its merry way toward a meaningful goal.
That is the mark of effective leadership and living in the fast lane, when you commit and see it through to the end with integrity.
This helps because I've literally done the same.