Photography can teach many lessons of life. Two of the things
I have learned are timing and preparation. A picture taken at just
the right time of day with just the right lighting can be
breathtaking. To be able to capture that magic moment, you
must be prepared. That fantastic sunset will never make it into
your album if you don’t have your camera with you. But the most
important lesson I’ve learned from photography is focus.
Photography is in many ways a metaphor for life: What you focus on
makes a difference. Focus on all the obstacles in your life and
they seem bigger. Focus on what’s important to you and all the
minor annoyances seem to fade into the background.
Have you ever taken a picture of something, yet when you
got the
picture back from the developer it didn't quite capture what you
really saw? The one thing your eyes focused on was not even obvious
when you got the pictures back and saw all the distracting things
around it?
Life has many distractions. Things that clutter our mind and keep
us from concentrating on how to achieve our goals. You can take
beautiful pictures even amidst a setting full of unflattering
things. You just need to look for the perfect angle where the lens
only focuses on what's important.
How often though do we let distractions muddle our focus? Whether
your goal is to write a book or lose ten pounds, do you let the
tasks of everyday life get in the way?
I had a goal of working out three days a week. Yet, my busy
schedule never seemed to allow the time for it. Has this ever
happened to you? Lunch time doesn’t work as friends want to
catch up or you need the time to prepare for the afternoon’s tasks.
After work I often found I was too tired. Focusing on all the other
things I needed to do caused the priority of working out to fall to
the bottom of the list.
Focusing on the goal changed this around. Steven Covey suggests,
instead of prioritizing your schedule, schedule your priorities.
Following this advice, I decided to block out time for my workout.
Instead of seeing if there was time left to fit it in, I booked it
into my calendar and then scheduled less important tasks around it.
The result? I now stick to my workouts. I not only feel better,
but the regular exercise has given me even more energy to find
time for those other things.
Why Not give this a try and see if the same technique will work
for you. Focus on what is really important to you in your life and
see what develops!
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