Revolutionary Leaders

Focus

One of my favorite leadership teachers is John Maxwell. In chapter eight of his book, The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader, he talks about the importance of FOCUS. He says the keys to successful focus are priorities and concentration. What are your priorities? How do you work at concentrating your efforts and resources to accomplishing your goals?

I think that Dean Karnazes is one of the most focused people in the world. Have you heard of him? He is also known as Untramarathon Man. A love of the outdoors, Dean has pushed his body and mind to inconceivable limits. Among his many accomplishments, he's run a 135-mile ultramarathon across Death Valley in 120-degree temperatures and a marathon to the South Pole in negative 40 degrees. He's run a 200-mile relay solo, racing alondside teams of tweelve, and has completed a 350-mile run. Dean swam across the San Francisco Bay, climbed Half Dome in Yosemite, mountain-biked for 24 hours straight, surfed the gigantic waves off the coast of Hawaii, and is an accomplished windsurfer. He won the Vermont 100-mile Endurance Run, holds eleven Western States 100-mile Endurance Run silver buckles for sub-24-hour finishes, has raced and competed across the globe, and has won the world's toughest footrace: the Badwater Untramarathon. His most recent endeavor was running 50 marathons, in all 50 states, in 50 consecutive days! Dean might be a bit nuts, but he is without a doubt focused. (By the way, Dean is 43 years old!)

What about William Carey, a thirty-one year old pastor whose dream was to send missionaries from London overseas. For six years he shared his vision with fellow ministers until finnally in 1792 the first Baptist missionary society was formed. "Expect great things from God. Attemp great thing for God."

Then there is D.L. Moody. A Sunday School teacher came the shoe store where he worked with a mission to convert Moody to Christ at the age of eighteen. Although never ordained or seminary trained, Moody entered full-time ministry at the age of 23. He must have been extremely focused. He preached to more than 100 million people - before the advent of radio or television - and founded a church, a Bible institute, and a publishing house!

Have you heard of Hudson Taylor? He gave his heart to the Lord at age seventeen and later that year felt called to serve as a missionary to China. After serving in China for fifty-one years , Taylor established 20 missions stations, brought 849 missionaries to the field, and trained an additional 700 Chinese workers. Some estimate that Taylor baptized 50,000 Chinese people, as many as 35,000 of them being people that he had personally converted to Christ! Sounds like he was pretty focused.

What about you? What are your priorities? Have you ever written them out? Give it a try. Once you set your priorities, work on focusing your efforts and resources to see them through.