Pick Your Focus – I suggest Adding Value

Since it is early in the New Year, it is a good time to revisit our passions.

Try this – notice what you focus on when you first open your eyes in the morning. Is it your email inbox? Ask yourself - what drives me? My focus has remained the same for the last few years. I look for opportunities to add value.  

Not so long ago, I was often worried about what might happen next, or lost in thought with regret about the past, or chasing some project or hobby pursuing some form of happiness.  Very often I did not notice the blue sky, the color of the changing leaves in fall, or the smiles of my loved ones. With all this reaching, I lost opportunities to engage with life and those most precious to me.

Sadly, that is exactly what many of us do. We sacrifice being intimate with, and appreciative of, our life experiences because of all the worrying, regretting, wanting, and avoiding. We dilute the present moment and thus our appreciation for it.

My suggestion is that if you want to be happy and more effective at work, learn to appreciate who is with you right now and what you are doing right now – and look for opportunities to add value.

The following paragraphs overview how I maintain a focus on adding value. 

At every life situation, I try to remember to look for an opportunity to add value towards the greater good. For example, when I first open my eyes in the morning, I try and notice my wife sleeping beside me and pause to notice and appreciate her. This simple pause adds value to our relationship and our day as it encourages me to begin the day with the mindset of appreciation. 

When washing fruit for my morning commute, I make sure to wash some for my family as well. Washing some fruit is a minor act of adding value, but don’t the simple things sometimes matter the most? 

The bottom line is that maintaining a value-add mindset provides direction in every life scenario and when actioned provides a sense of accomplishment and pride.

This mental stance is important as it leads to either seeing the cup as either half full or looking for ways to fill it. Holding a door open for someone is adding value; leaving a decent tip for the cleaning staff at the hotel you are staying at adds value; a work request provides an opportunity to add value. 

There was this one time when our team was transitioning through a difficult time. We had lost a key team member, and we were going through a broader corporate restructuring. I was in a leadership position and took the opportunity to encourage the remaining team to focus on two things: to have a plan and to work the plan; and, to note that quite simply the plan was to add value whenever possible.

In the months that followed this advice, the team seemed to gel and thrive with this simple advice. I strongly suggest stop solving problems, and look for opportunities to add value.

Happy New Year