Once You Focus on You First, Success Will Follow
It’s important to focus on you first because what you center your life around becomes your paradigm about the world around you. Paradigms are your way of thinking about how you perceive yourself and life in general.
Even though this article is geared towards teens, as adults we can learn from these lessons all the same. If you’re a parent, share this article with your teen, if not, then you’ll be able to figure out how to apply these teachings to your own personal life.
In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, Sean Covey figured teens should center their life around various areas of life, not just one:
Friends
It’s not wise to center your life around your friends because:
- “fake” friends
- gossip
- forget about you
- mood swings
- move away
Make as many friends as you can, but don’t build your life on them. It’s an unstable foundation.”
Stuff
This materialistic world teaches us to value our possessions and compare each other by them. There are more important things to life than our stuff.
If who I am is what I have and what I have is lost, then who am I?”
Significant Other
Independence is more attractive than dependence. The more you center your life on someone, the more unattractive you become to that person.
…they always need to have those sickening, ‘where do we stand’ talks.”
School
Some teens are so obsessed about the deans list, GPAs, AP classes, Valedictorian and forget that you go to school to learn. Will having a 4.0 over 30 years prior make you happy when you’re 50 years old? Build the skills today that will make you happy forever.
Parents
Your life is your life, not theirs. Become responsible for yourself and focus on you. Please yourself and make yourself proud before anyone else.
Living to please them above everything else can become a real nightmare.”
Others
- Sports - What happens with a career ending injury?
- Hero - What happens when you find out they are not who they say they are?
- Enemy - The thoughts you project towards others are a reflection of what you feel about yourself.
- Work - Feeds your emptiness temporarily but does not fully satisfy you
- Self - The world does not revolve around you and your problems.
Principled Centered - The Real Thing
Your heart, your feelings, will recognize the true principles in which to live by.
- Honesty - Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom” - Thomas Jefferson
- Service - “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is ‘What are you doing for others?’” - Martin Luther King Jr.
- Love - “Speak in such a way that others love to listen to you. Listen in such a way that others love to speak to you” - Anonymous
- Hard Work - “The only time success comes before work is in the dictionary” - Zig Ziglar
- Respect - “When we show our respect for other living things, they respond with respect for us” - Arapaho Proverb
- Gratitude - “The more you complain about things, the more things you’ll have to complain about” - Zig Ziglar
- Moderation - “Foolish is the one who turns pleasure into a need” - Anonymous
- Fairness - “We can not choose how others treat us. We can only choose how we treat others” - Shawn Ahmed
- Integrity - “The happiest people don’t have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything” - Anonymous
- Loyalty - “Trust takes years to build, seconds to break and forever to repair” - Anonymous
- Responsibility - “Some people dream of success, others make it happen” - Brian Tracy
If you live by them, you will excel. If you break them, you will fail.”