From the Desk of Keith Hafner

Focus.

Max and Oscar both started tennis lessons at the same time. As beginners, they made good progress. When the class was over, Oscar enrolled in the intermediate class. Max, however, just wanted to move on to something else.

As Oscar stayed focused on tennis, his skills continued to develop. He no longer felt like a beginner. He even decided to take the advanced class, when it came time. Because of his focus, Oscar was learning to be persistent, to set and reach goals, and to overcome discouragement.

These skills will carry over into other areas of Oscar’s life. He can stay focused when pursuing other types of goals, too. Max, on the other hand, moved on to golf, and later to ice hockey. He is always stuck at beginner level, because he hasn’t learned to focus on specific areas.

Max loses focus when an activity becomes hard. He moves on to a new activity. He has developed a pattern of moving from activity to activity, never advancing beyond the beginning level.

Sadly, Max will take those tendencies with him into other areas, too. Unless he learns to stay focused, he’ll find it hard to accomplish very much.