Is it becoming more difficult to focus?

We have enough evidence to clearly and unequivocally say that we are more distracted as a society than ever before.

Unlimited streaming options, swiping options, social platforms, content creators, influencers, video games, educational content, workout videos, cooking videos, blogs, microblogs, doomscrolling, polarization, notifications about notifications, environmental catastrophes, economic crisis de jour. You name it, we’ve got it. And we’ve got it way more intense than ever before.

More distractions leads to increasing difficulty to focus.

But.

We have better tools than ever to build our focus muscle.

And therein lies the choice. There is no neutral when it comes to our ability to focus. Facebook and Netflix have armies of engineers hacking your brain. Your entropy is their gain.

If I accept that society is engaging in an all out battle for my attention, focus is rapidly becoming a super power and a game that I am committed to winning.

Can I move the needle every day despite the chaos?

A few weeks ago, I gave some advice to a dear friend who is starting a similar and yet very different position to something I have previously done. This advice had nothing to do with the incoming pandemic, but it seems even more relevant for all of us today.

When she sent me a text last week to let me know that she's thinking about that advice every day, I realized that it was exactly what I needed to be thinking about myself each day. Funny how it always seem to work out that way.

Here's the question I shared with her:

"What is the most important thing that you can be focused on to move the needle for the business each day?"

Everything else is going to be a distraction.

In her position, it is likely she'll have several people in the organization asking for her help on different projects and assignments. She should be hyper diligent about where she is spending her time. If something isn't tangibly moving the needle forward, it should be delegated, deferred or flat out rejected.

And here I am. Being consumed by the COVID19 news cycle. Trying my best to help my family and friends stay safe and make smart decisions. Doing what I can to boost my immune system while being locked down in "shelter in place" mode for the foreseeable future. And that advice just hit me square in the face.

I will be asking myself each morning: "What is the most important thing that I can be focused on to move the needle for the business each day?"

While moving the business forward is only part of the bigger overall picture right now, I still want my work time to be as laser focused as possible. Now more than ever.

How do I show up when the world is melting down?

With everything going on in the world at the moment, it feels important to look inward at how I'm showing up.

My personal objective is to prevent myself from contracting the virus for as long as I can to help flatten the curve and also to become laser focused amidst the chaos.

All in focus on the things I can control.

Yes, I want to be informed and prepared and understand what is happening in the world at large, but only so that I may help me make better informed decisions or take action. Halted trading on stock exchange or the decision to cancel Coachella has virtually no impact my immediate schedule and where I need to focus.

On the other hand, there's a lot of emotions that are surfacing during these times, and it's important not to ignore them.

I feel incredibly sad for the people all of the people already affected by this virus and the people who will be affected in the coming days, weeks and months. My personal, unscientific belief is that this is going to get much, much worse before it gets better and that makes my heart hurt. My sadness, my frustration with the current state of containment, testing and leadership in the US and all the other emotions that are coming up do not change where I need to focus. They do not change how I need to show up to each and every meeting, situation and activity.

Take care of myself, take care of my loved ones, do not get caught up in the hysteria and focus on what I can control. This is my reminder to show up as a leader and a rock for those around me during whatever comes next.

How do I control the things I can't control?

We humans have been hardwired to desire a perception of control since before there was recorded history. Studies show that control is not only essential for our well-being, but that in earlier times it was a biological imperative for our survival as a species.

So it's no wonder we want to control anything and everything.

And yet we can't.

We can't control the weather. We can't control the color of the sky. We can't control other people's feelings and experiences. In fact, there is actually very little in this world that we as an individual can control.

The simplified version of what we can control from my perspective is this:

• Mindset
• Focus
• Self Care
• How we show up

That's pretty much it.

All of those things within our control are internal, and yet we put some much effort into trying controlling the external world. We spin our wheels and exhaust ourselves physically, emotionally and spiritually with virtually nothing to show for it. And it makes sense if we think about it from an evolutionary standpoint. Our ability to control was central to our survival, but now it's almost the opposite.

Today, our ability to let go of the need for control of our external environment is key to our health and happiness. What served our ancestors so well is the very thing that is holding us back today.

When I find myself trying to control the things I cannot control, I go through a simple exercise.

What's the worst that could happen? What's the best that could happen? And what's the most likely thing that could happen? Once I identify these, I make them real in my mind so that I can feel and experience each of these possible paths. From there, I'm able to let go of my need to control the things I can't control. I have prepared myself for whatever will happen, so I can focus on the things I can control.

Trust me, I know this is easier said than done. I'm experiencing this all right now in real time with my father being in the hospital. And I keep coming back to this frame of control. I will control the things that are within my control, and I'll let the rest of it go.

Why am I going all in with Mamba Time?

The news of Kobe Bryant's death hit me hard.

I want to take the space here to work through what has been coming up and why this feels like such a significant moment in time for me personally.

Kobe admittedly was not perfect, and it is entirely up to you to choose to forgive him for the things he did. Or not. It makes no difference to me which way you decide. I'm not going to say which way I fall, because it really doesn't matter for this conversation. What matters here is that Kobe has something valuable to teach me, and I can separate that lesson from the rest of his life. Just as Einstein and Jobs were geniuses, they also did things with which I fundamentally disagree. Same with Kobe.

I'm also not writing this for page views or in an attempt to capitalize in any way from this tragedy. I'm writing this now because it feels so real and raw. I'm writing this for me. As always.

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ESPN shared a video the day after the crash with the following quote from Kobe:

"I've always said that I want to be remembered as a player that didn’t waste a moment. Didn’t waste a day. I’ve felt extremely blessed with this god given talent. At the same time I didn’t take it for granted at all.

If I could be remembered as a person who was born with a lot of talent who did everything he could to overachieve and live every day as if he was 12th guy on the bench. I think that’s a very powerful message to have."

This video stopped me dead in my tracks.

Have I done everything I could to overachieve with the talent that I was given?

Absolutely not.

Gut punch.

I truly believe that I have massively underachieved compared to what is possible for me in this lifetime. I've taken my talents for granted. I've wasted more days and moments than I ever care to admit.

It makes me sick to type this out, because I know it's true. Ahhhhhhhhhh! Fuck.

That ends right now.

In future Thoughts, I'm sure I'll want to work through the situations and scenarios that led me to this moment, but this isn't the place for them. This isn't about the past. This is about owning up to wasted moments and under performance. And this is about stepping into the new me. The guy who doesn't waste a moment and does everything I can to overachieve with what I've got.

I truly believe that I have the talent to be an all time great entrepreneur and leader. But talent alone doesn't cut it. It's the moment to moment decisions and actions that make that possible. I realize how far fetched that sounds based on where I am at presently and what I've accomplished thus far. It feels like I'm playing "Horse" in the elementary school gym while talking about winning MVPs, scoring titles and multiple NBA championships.

There are similarities that are jumping out about what it takes to be an all time great at anything in life. Intense, laser-like focus on the most important thing. Incredible discipline. Leading others to elevate their game to new heights. Never wasting a moment. Sure, there are massively successful entrepreneurs who might do the opposite of some of those, but that hasn't worked for me. These are what has allowed for me to be my best for brief moments in the past, and I'm tripling down on that.

I don't yet know all of the answers of how I channel my dark energy into an alter ego like the Mamba Mentality, and I'm ok with the answers revealing themselves over time. What I do know is this.

For the next 60 days, I'm committing to Mamba Time. I've blocked off 3 hours every morning starting at 5am. I will begin each day by watching this video and then move into 1 hour of mediation, 1 hour of yoga, 1 hour of reading / writing. Every day.

At the end of 60 glorious days of Mamba Time, I'll re-evaluate. By starting each morning from this foundation, I will have set myself up powerfully to make the most of each and every moment I have on this planet and overachieve with the talent I was given.