Obsess Over The Right Thing

And it's not your competition

As a business leader, our attention can easily be diverted from the things we should be doing. One of those ways we divert our attention is by obsessing over the wrong things. The biggest wrong thing we focus on is our competition.

Man holding glasses over the water focused on a city

Photo by Elena Taranenko

We focus on our competition because shifting our focus to them is easy. We constantly hear or see what the competition is doing. This makes us anxious and nervous…

If we’re not obsessed on the right thing.

Why Obsessing On The Competition Is The Wrong Play

I’ve already mentioned why we obsess about the competition. They’re who we see and who we hear about on a daily basis. Seeing them “pull” ahead terrifies us. Yet this doesn’t do us any good.

When we focus on the competition, we’re focusing on an external factor. You and I, we can’t do a thing about the competition. They’re doing their own thing. We need to do our own.

Obsessing on the competition takes your eyes off of what you do well. Or what you’ve already poured a ton of energy and effort into. This deflects your energy and makes you go off-course.

By obsessing over the competition, you lose what’s special to you and what you’re doing.

Obsess On Where You’re Going

Want a better object to obsess on? Obsess on where you’re going.

Where you’re going is a much better place to focus your attention and efforts on. You can actually do something about this area. It’s your business and life, after all.

When you obsess over your direction, you are in control. You are able to course correct when you get off-track. You are able to do what is right for your organization.

Obsessing over where you’re going also does a couple of other things:

  • Energizes you with an end goal
  • Helps you stay focused
  • Gives you clear direction
  • Allows you to chase your sweet spot
  • Stops a lot of the “squirreling”
  • Makes you work on creating a better product

When you obsess over your own stuff, you’re able to get more done. Our competition isn’t the enemy. And they’re not who you should be obsessing over. They’re doing their thing and you’re doing yours. So why are you obsessing on them and not what you can do.

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