Shift Your Focus: Are You Choosing the Best Path?

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, hey, grow squad.
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome.
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome again.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is another episode, another week of the Eugene Hamilton podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hope you don't well.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, I think it's appropriate.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's proper to ask you how are you doing?
[SPEAKER_00]: Having a good week, having a good month, having a good third quarter.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope all things are going well for you and those that you love and hope did to your heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just today invite you to go ahead and subscribe, like, share, do all the great things that help our platform, our squad, the grow squad, our to grow and to that others know that great things are happening.
[SPEAKER_00]: right here and right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Today's episode, another hot one.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to give it to you real quick, raw from the heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you can understand exactly where it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: That my mind has been taking me these last few weeks as we've been journeying together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for my friends who are listening, who are watching.
[SPEAKER_00]: Bless their lives, wherever they are in your name.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Check this out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've been meeting a lot of people on the work that I do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you've been paying attention, follow me on social media at UGNJ Hamilton.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have added another layer to what is that offer.
[SPEAKER_00]: My offerings have included inspiration of speaking, transformational keynotes.
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of connections with the education field may be teachers or students.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you know my background, you will understand that I was a leader of people, a leader of leaders for about eighteen years in a professional way, in a official way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I've added leadership development, leadership coaching, and conference speaking to our list of offerings.
[SPEAKER_00]: And one of the things that has been happening is that I've been introduced to a lot of people who are, for lack of a better word, they're at a crossroads.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have gotten to a full-way stop.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're cars at each stop sign and everybody's trying to figure out who's going to go first.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've been there before, kind of frustrating, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You get to the stop sign.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you all get there in a matter of seconds of each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: And everyone has forgotten what their driver's ed books in.
[SPEAKER_00]: The driver's ed books is, and I don't even know why I'm telling you this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's a whole few for the moment and maybe somebody out here think my niece's, my niece just passed and got her driver's license.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a great thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: But one of the things that I remember from taking driver's ed is simply this.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I get to the stop sign at the same time as someone else, the person to the right, this is an administrative Louisiana.
[SPEAKER_00]: I live in California now.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when I got my driver's license, I was in Louisiana.
[SPEAKER_00]: The person to the right goes first.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm meeting people now, they're at the right, they're on the left, they're in the middle, they're up front, they're to the everywhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're trying to figure out, what do I, what are I doing next?
[SPEAKER_00]: They desire more.
[SPEAKER_00]: They desire to be used by God more.
[SPEAKER_00]: They desire to have a greater impact on their job.
[SPEAKER_00]: They desire to have a greater impact within their family circles.
[SPEAKER_00]: They desire to be a better friend, a better husband, a better wife, a better son, a better daughter, a better human.
[SPEAKER_00]: And today I want to offer you something that's been working for me as you know as I've been on this little health journey for a few weeks now.
[SPEAKER_00]: One thing that has clicked into gear for me has shifted into gear for me is that I have essentially had to shift my focus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, basically I'm inviting you as we're in the third quarter of
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm inviting you if you watched this later on.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is when this was recorded.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm inviting you to
[SPEAKER_00]: Ask yourself, what am I focused on?
[SPEAKER_00]: I was watching, I was on the airplane the other day.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was viewing a in podcasts.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some people call it a podcast, whatever you call it, but via video.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Isaac Hayes, honestly, he's the second, maybe the third, I don't know, the son of Isaac Hayes, the great singer.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was talking about how entrepreneurs pride themselves on filling up their calendars.
[SPEAKER_00]: And not just entrepreneurs, but he's focused in his segment on entrepreneurs because he is one.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he wanted to give a word of inspiration, of hope, of light to those who kind of work for themselves, who find themselves kind of spin their wheels.
[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes this is what he say.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm paraphrasing as entrepreneurs, we read this badge of honor that we're doing a whole lot of stuff, but we actually doing nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when I say, we, I'm an entrepreneur, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I work for myself.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am, I've been blessed to be in business for myself for the past five years.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I, I understood exactly what he's saying.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes as a person that is starting a business or working a business that they own, develop and has put into motion.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes you pride yourself on, okay, I got all this stuff to do today and all of it together barely move the needle.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got this many Zoom calls.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got to do this work on this.
[SPEAKER_00]: They got to jump off that and jump over here.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got to do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we find ourselves spinning our wheels doing a lot of good stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: But nothing great.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a bar right there.
[SPEAKER_00]: We find ourselves doing a lot of good.
[SPEAKER_00]: But because we lack focus, we don't do anything great.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so what he said was, and I'm just borrowing from him, the real flex is not, I got a whole bunch of stuff going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: The real flex is that I'm laser focused on this one thing in this season that I'm going to see to the finish line that will open doors for me to get back to the other things that are in the fire, and I can focus on them one at a time or two at a time instead of focusing on ten things at once and getting nothing done.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as you look at your life, as you look at your career, as you look at your family, as you look at your health, whatever it is that you're saying to yourself, I'm juggling all of this, ask yourself, which one of those things?
[SPEAKER_00]: Can I elevate to the top priority, to the list, the top of my priority list and say to myself, you know what?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to be laser focused on my health right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Health is wealth.
[SPEAKER_00]: It sounds like a greatly shay, but the older I get, the more I'm realizing that if I'm unable to get out of bed, if I'm unable to fulfill my duties because of some kind of illness, then I'm, I'm, I'm wouldn't say I'm no good, but essentially I'm unable to do anything that is of any good at the moment because I haven't paid attention and focused on the things.
[SPEAKER_00]: that matter.
[SPEAKER_00]: So ask yourself, what is it that is on your list?
[SPEAKER_00]: What is it that is in the pot of the many things that you have going on?
[SPEAKER_00]: That you can say, you know what?
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me let me let me highlight this one part that's been lacking.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've been working on it, but there's been no
[SPEAKER_00]: significant outcomes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've been working at it, but it needs more of my attention to growth.
[SPEAKER_00]: It needs more of my attention to get better.
[SPEAKER_00]: It needs more of my attention to actually impact lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as you think about all the things that the cause for your attention every day, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: and some things are purpose field and some things are just popular.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some things that we find ourselves doing, pulls us in a direction of fulfilling our purpose and some things.
[SPEAKER_00]: We saw somebody else doing, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And we said to ourselves, if I can do some of that, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I can, I can arrive at some level of success.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let me invite you
[SPEAKER_00]: to re-frame, here's how I want to say it, reframe your perspective.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you ever had a picture that may have been in a frame that maybe someone passed away and your family passed it down to you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you've got something a value from someone that you had to break or take it away from its original packaging.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's original frame and give it a fresh coat.
[SPEAKER_00]: Give it a fresh look.
[SPEAKER_00]: And to do that, you couldn't leave it in the same frame.
[SPEAKER_00]: To give it life again.
[SPEAKER_00]: You had to move it from its original frame, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And put it in a new frame, and essentially, reframe that bad boy.
[SPEAKER_00]: All I'm really, all I'm inviting you to do is to reframe your perspective.
[SPEAKER_00]: reframe it in such a way that my son,
[SPEAKER_00]: It's interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's an only child.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not his fault.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody's fault.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's just, it is what it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's an only child.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he has a lot of toys, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the things that is interesting in this, this may make sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: It may not make sense, but I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm going to try to, I'm going to try to make it make sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes he's playing with newer toys that when I say newer that he's gotten in the last three to six months.
[SPEAKER_00]: And every now and then he will stumble up on a toy that's buried way, but I'm going to tell my way down to his toy box that he hadn't seen it over a year.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the other day it was so wild.
[SPEAKER_00]: He pulled out these walkie talkies that we bought for him probably Christmas of, two thousand, twenty-two or twenty-three actually say.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think twenty-two, but twenty-three.
[SPEAKER_00]: He pulls them out and he says, oh wow, dad, you bought me these walkie talkies?
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, you shouldn't have almost.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't talk like that yet, but he was almost like, you shouldn't have.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, thank you for my new toys.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's walking around the house and when God is mother, it mommy, I got some new walkie, I'm like, pro, those things are so old, the battery's dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got changed the battery in them.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the wife said, you know what?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is funny.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's funny.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's doing this now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe we should go on a treasure hunt of sorts.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe we should go down, do a deep dive, and at Toy Box, and when certain holidays come around, we can kind of reframe or repackage some of his old toys and give them to him again, because now he's got, he's got fresh, fresh perspective.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's fine because sometimes even in life we get things prematurely.
[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes we can't appreciate them until we've had even the experience or some kind of lesson that shows us how valuable that thing is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Makes sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that happens in relationships in life.
[SPEAKER_00]: You ever seen somebody that maybe dated as a teenager and they broke up.
[SPEAKER_00]: They both didn't understand each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: They both just went this step of ways and they got back together.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they all say, oh, man, wow, I didn't realize what a gym I had at fifteen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, of course, both individuals have changed.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've changed, they've changed, and so we know the life experiences have helped them to blossom in the bloom.
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe there is a different kind of appreciation that is there because of what you all have been through in life.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when you reframe sometimes, when you reframe those things and those people sometimes in your life, you have a better and greater appreciation.
[SPEAKER_00]: prioritize your values as you're looking at shift your focus.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're trying to, as you're trying to categorize or prioritize, it would be advantageous for you to check your values again.
[SPEAKER_00]: That will give you a lot of insight as to what should be on the top of your list.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do I value right now?
[SPEAKER_00]: What's important to me in this season of my life?
[SPEAKER_00]: What is it that?
[SPEAKER_00]: I can say to myself, you know what?
[SPEAKER_00]: If I get this thing done, check this out.
[SPEAKER_00]: It takes out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a spiel.
[SPEAKER_00]: You all are hearing it here first.
[SPEAKER_00]: I haven't told anybody.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not nobody.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe, yeah, I've done anybody.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm writing a new book.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wrote a children's book, which has done amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, we were blessed to be able to share five hundred of those bad boys over the course of the past few weeks, sharing with schools across the country.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there's a new book that I'm working on.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm glad I'm telling you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm kind of glad I'm telling you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I sometimes telling people, holds you accountable.
[SPEAKER_00]: because there's some sounds and writing this book, I get frustrated, I say to myself, oh, nobody wanna read this.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I got somebody on my side, my wife, man, she'd be pushing me, she, oh, no, no, no, the world needs this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in that book, one of the things I'm inviting the reader to do is to figure out in life, not only what you value, check this out now.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what values you in return?
[SPEAKER_00]: Not only figuring out who do I value, but who values me in return.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oftentimes we spin our wheels in the wrong direction on the wrong thing and sometimes on the wrong people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we wonder why things aren't working out the way we thought they were going to work out.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I want you to.
[SPEAKER_00]: Take a sheet of paper.
[SPEAKER_00]: Take a note pad.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pull out your phone and go to that one setting.
[SPEAKER_00]: What does it call?
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me still go to the right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a call.
[SPEAKER_00]: Voice notes on iPhone.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what it's called.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the setting, when you can record notes to yourself, right, and go back and play them, I'm inviting you, sometimes just sit in a quiet room and a quiet space.
[SPEAKER_00]: If your house isn't quiet, trust me, I get it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Get in your car, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Sitting your car for a moment and just talk to yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: Talk about your values.
[SPEAKER_00]: Talk about what's important.
[SPEAKER_00]: Talk about this season.
[SPEAKER_00]: Talk about, um,
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, before the year is over, I want to, I want to invite you to begin assessing some of the goals that you made in January, and ask yourself, why haven't I reached them?
[SPEAKER_00]: What's what's hindering?
[SPEAKER_00]: What's stopping me from reaching that goal before December?
[SPEAKER_00]: What's stopping me from getting some traction behind?
[SPEAKER_00]: If you don't reach the goal, at least get some traction in that direction.
[SPEAKER_00]: So grow squad.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're gonna go, if you're gonna grow, and if you're gonna grow, you gotta shift your focus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying that you're a hedon, I'm not saying that you are focused on things that are inappropriate, what I'm saying is sometimes what you're focused on is not inappropriate or off-limit, sometimes what you're focused on.
[SPEAKER_00]: it's beneath you and it's not taking you higher.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is my homework for you this week.
[SPEAKER_00]: Plot that no pad, plot those voice notes, pull out whatever you've got to do, talk to a trusted friend, figure out what you value, prioritize, and also reprioritize and reframe those things that are important to you and get after it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for joining me today.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's very, very important for me to let you know how grateful I am that you took time.
[SPEAKER_00]: You took a few moments out of your day to listen to watch.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I appreciate your support.
[SPEAKER_00]: I appreciate the love.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I appreciate you being a part of the grow squad.
[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, as you continue this week, don't forget to take care of yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: Take care of those that are important to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't forget to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't forget to grow and don't forget to glow.
[SPEAKER_00]: See you next time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peace.