How Do You Maintain Laser Focus to Stick to Your Personal Vision?

You have to first know who you are from the least common denominator. Past successes, praises, accomplishments are things that you have done, they do not make you who you are, and I had to learn that for myself.

Joshua ben Judah is a multi-faceted artist, international author and serial entrepreneur with a background in engineering from Northern Illinois University. 

 By: Joshua ben Judah

One of the best and simplest ways to begin to answer this question is to respond with, “Make your bed.” Though this statement may sound weird or strange or even a little insulting, allow me to unfold it for you. I have lived with this little statement for over fifteen years, and it has been one of the key principles of how I have been able to accomplish some of the things that I have thus far in life because of its link to another principle. But first, let me qualify this statement for you with some background about myself.

If there was something I wanted to do, I went after it with or without permission. This type of behavior eventually led to a very disorganized life full of incomplete accomplishments and failed projects.  If anything, I was trying to prove to myself that I was somebody, I deserved to be successful … That was the wrong position to be.

With that faithfulness came a new form of discipline and consistency.

It was during this time in college that I started to “make my bed.” In a literal way, I started making my bed every day. Why, because my room was a mess! I was always on the go, too busy to stop and breath, give time to the things that were important because I was always trying to prove a point even if it was on a subconscious level. 
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I was already created to be great; my existing had nothing to do with me in the first place! In the process of me “making my bed” a type of faithfulness began to emerge. I was not making my bed to impress anyone; my bed needed making. 

​Recently, I recall reading a Navy officer talking about this same concept in that if you are faithful in the little things you can be faithful in bigger things. This is also a fundamental principle the Word of God teaches. 

Keep this in mind, though my foundation is rooted in the love of God through Christ, the principle of faith knows no religion, ethnicity, nation, sex, age, or occupation. It is a universal law. Be faithful with what you have in your life now if you want to reach any level of success.  Are you looking and asking for more when you can barely handle what is on your plate now? Are you “making your bed” every day and then adding on to it once you can expand your stewardship? These are the hard questions that you will need to start asking and being able to answer. They are not rhetorical; they do have answers.

How are you stewarding your responsibilities and commitments now? 

I have and still am asking these types of questions on a daily basis. You must be brutally honest with yourself because it is easy to fall into deception when your desire for success (and other things) blind you from facing and then accepting the hard truths about your present reality. I had to realize the lies I believed about myself, the secret agendas, hidden motives for my actions, etc.

Facing these questions are crucial to moving on in life ... or you will remain stuck in the past hoping for the future without every experiencing or encountering the present, which is necessary to move into tomorrow.

Once we stop trying to manage our behavior and allow our character and nature to truly be transformed then being who we were already created to BE just happens!

Back in 2006, I started writing a fantasy fiction series, Legends of Illandria, because I saw a need to bring back pure imagination for my generation and the generations to come after me. I was tired of all the wizards and dragons etc. portrayed in the entertainment industry as the go-to platform for the imagination. I did not want my children to grow up in a world that told them how to imagine especially when so many people are gifted with other things; there has to be a better way.  

Illandria is a land where there are amazing creatures of fantasy, supernatural lands of mystery and most of all, very intriguing individuals who endeavor to heed The Source and follow the guidance of the Great Books.

Focusing on the "end goal" can be the greatest distraction/deception you can have.  

​​Steps, not long distances, achieve miles.

It took seven years for me to get enough foundation laid to develop a strong enough background for the series even to make sense. I felt like that series would never get released.

Now, I am working on a three volume series that sells around the world!  Also, I have been fortunate to be able to embark in a business investor with a Texas investor for a marketing agency, 360Marketing LLC, in the Dallas Fort Worth area. Outside of these two businesses, I am establishing a group of ten plus small businesses that have been in the making for the last seventeen years. ​

My experiences have taught me that if your character/vision is fueled by "motivation" or a "why" then your character will only go to the degree of relevance of your "motivation" or "why."  So let us recap: ​

If your "why" is no longer relevant than your vision dies.

• Know Who You Are - Not who you pretend to be, want others to see you as, or hope to be, etc. Knowing who you are (now) comes from realizing your existence has nothing to do with you at all, and that you had no part in making it happen. ​
• Make Your Bed -  Start being faithful with the things you already have. 
• Separate Past from Present - Realize and accept that past accomplishments, successes, etc., do not make you who you are. That is deception. Those are the things you have done, but what what are you doing now TODAY? 
• Face Your Present Reality with Brutal Honesty - If you are not able to start loving who you are, how can you even begin to consider the needs of others which is one of the most fundamental principles of success, serving others.
• Allow Your Character to be Transformed - Stop trying to manage behavior. Once you have a new nature, old habits and behaviors disappear, and the real you come through.