“It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.” — Bruce Lee
While I’m focusing on focus as a skill, I thought it would be helpful to do a roundup of quotes all about focus. If we stay curious, we can always learn a lot from the wisdom of the ages and our modern sages.
One of my all time favorite focus quotes is …
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”
It’s often attributed to Aristotle, but as I understand it, it’s actually Will Durant as he explains Aristotle’s words.
You Are the Director of Your Life
You’re the director of your life – you choose where to put the focus. Focus is a funny thing — it changes everything. For example, your focus shapes your life. So if you want to re-design your life, reshape your focus. What I find the most interesting about focus, is where people put their focus.
I included a wide variety of examples below so you can see the array of options: yourself, other people, the greater good, how you feel, how you look, how you think, how you act, the past, how you respond, how you react, the present, the future, what’s wrong, what’s right, what’s black, what’s white, the spirit of the law or the letter of the law, the forest or the trees, the pain or the gain, etc.
Narrow the Focus
Narrow the focus to change your frame and change the game. Your focus is really unlimited. The irony is that the real power comes when you narrow it.
Now let’s wander through our garden of gems … all about focus …
BTW – If you happen to notice a quote below that seems just right for you, it might be by design. I chose to focus on some of you while drawing the quotes, to see if I could find a special quote that just might sing to your soul.
Top 10 Focus Quotes
- “A clear vision, backed by definite plans, gives you a tremendous feeling of confidence and personal power.” — Brian Tracy
- “A man should never be appointed into a managerial position if his vision focuses on people’s weaknesses rather than on their strengths.” — Peter Drucker
- “All that we are is the result of what we have thought.” – Buddha
- “Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.” – Aesop
- “Do whatever you do intensely.” — Robert Henri
- “I don’t care how much power, brilliance or energy you have, if you don’t harness it and focus it on a specific target, and hold it there you’re never going to accomplish as much as your ability warrants.” — Zig Ziglar
- “Most people have no idea of the giant capacity we can immediately command when we focus all of our resources on mastering a single area of our lives.” — Tony Robbins
- “My success, part of it certainly, is that I have focused in on a few things.” — Bill Gates
- “The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” — Bruce Lee
- “You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” — Mark Twain
Great Quotes About Focus
“90% of every art form is garbage – dance and stand-up, painting and music. Focus on the 10% that’s good, suck it up, and drive on.”
— Patton Oswalt
“A business leader has to keep their organization focused on the mission. That sounds easy, but it can be tremendously challenging in today’s competitive and ever-changing business environment. A leader also has to motivate potential partners to join.”
— Meg Whitman
“A clear vision, backed by definite plans, gives you a tremendous feeling of confidence and personal power.”
— Brian Tracy
“A corporation is a living organism; it has to continue to shed its skin. Methods have to change. Focus has to change. Values have to change. The sum total of those changes is transformation.”
— Andrew Grove
“A major stimulant to creative thinking is focused questions. There is something about a well-worded question that often penetrates to the heart of the matter and triggers new ideas and insights.”
— Brian Tracy
“A man should never be appointed into a managerial position if his vision focuses on people’s weaknesses rather than on their strengths.”
— Peter Drucker
“A person who aims at nothing is sure to hit it.”
– Anonymous
“Act the part and you will become the part.”
— William James
“All that we are is the result of what we have thought.”
– Buddha
“Along with a strong belief in your own inner voice, you also need laser-like focus combined with unwavering determination.”
— Larry Flynt
“And I kind of said to myself if I get my voice back I’m not going to take back the old anxiety about it and just focus on the limitations. I’m really going to enjoy it.”
— Rosanne Cash
“And so if your competitors aren’t growing, if there isn’t a competitive reason to grow, and you want focus and discipline to add customers to existing stores, you adjust your strategy.”
— Jim Cantalupo
“Any artist that’s involved in their work is inevitably going to have a focus in what they do.”
— Jock Sturges
“Are your thoughts worthy of you? If not – NOW is the time to change them. You can begin right were you are right now. Nothing matters but this moment and what you are focusing your attention on.”
— Rhonda Byrne
“As you become more clear about who you really are, you’ll be better able to decide what is best for you – the first time around.”
— Oprah Winfrey
“Be dramatically willing to focus on the customer at all costs, even at the cost of obsoleting your own stuff.”
— Scott Cook
“Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.”
– Aesop
“But when you’re beginning, you should try to focus on something you love and your own way of doing things.”
— Jerry Harrison
“Champions get what they want because they know what they want. They have a vision that keeps them motivated and efficiently on track. They see it, feel it, and experience it in their minds and hearts. What is success for you? You won’t get there without knowing what it feels and looks like.”
— Dr.Phil
“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.”
— Alexander Graham Bell
“Concentrated attention is the collection of units of power on a chosen point of intention.”
— James Arthur Ray
“Concentration can be cultivated. One can learn to exercise will power, discipline one’s body and train one’s mind.”
— Anil Ambani
“Discovering what you really want saves you endless confusion and wasted energy.”
— Stuart Wilde
“Do it! People who succeed don’t just sit and think about what they want to do. They take meaningful, purposeful, directional action consistently and persistently. Every step they take puts them toward the outcome they’re looking for.”
— Dr.Phil
“Do whatever you do intensely.”
— Robert Henri
“Do you want to be an artist and a writer, or a wife and a lover? With kids, your focus changes. I don’t want to go to PTA meetings.”
— Stevie Nicks
“Don’t dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer.”
— Denis Waitley
“Each of my records has a different focus, a different theme.”
— Mark Edwards
“Energy is the essence of life. Every day you decide how you’re going to use it by knowing what you want and what it takes to reach that goal, and by maintaining focus.”
— Oprah Winfrey
“Focus 90% of your time on solutions and only 10% of your time on problems.”
— Anthony J. D’Angelo
“Focus in on the genre you want to write, and read books in that genre. A LOT of books by a variety of authors. And read with questions in your mind.”
— Nicholas Sparks
“Focus is a matter of deciding what things you’re not going to do.”
— John Carmack
“Focus on giving smiles away and you will always discover that your own smiles will always be in great supply.”
— Joyce Meyer
“Focus on remedies, not faults. ”
— Jack Nicklaus
“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.”
— Greg Anderson
“Focus on your problem zones, your strength, your energy, your flexibility and all the rest.”
— Jack LaLanne
“For a person to become deeply involved in any activity it is essential that he knows precisely what tasks he must accomplish, moment by moment.”
— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
“For me, the focus are songs, which really get the audience moving.”
— Joe Cocker
“Goals provide the energy source that powers our lives. One of the best ways we can get the most from the energy we have is to focus it. That is what goals can do for us; concentrate our energy.”
— Denis Waitley
“Good performance is about the capacity to focus and concentrate.”
— Betty Buckley
“I believe that as much as you take, you have to give back. It’s important not to focus on yourself too much.”
— Nicole Kidman
“I do what I do, and I do it well, and focus and take it one moment at a time.”
— James Caviezel
“I don’t care how much power, brilliance or energy you have, if you don’t harness it and focus it on a specific target, and hold it there you’re never going to accomplish as much as your ability warrants.”
— Zig Ziglar
“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
— Bruce Lee
“I finally learned to live in the present and focus only on what I want rather than what I don’t want.”
— Darren L. Johnson
“I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the universe.”
–Dalai Lama
“I focus on the writing and let the rest of the process take care of itself. I’ve learned to trust my own instincts and I’ve also learned to take risks.”
— Sue Grafton
“I just saw the emotion in everything, so I got to feel everything that was going on and that I was viewing, but I couldn’t think in terms of structure, which is the whole point of deep focus.”
— Gil Kane
“I just want to focus on one thing at a time.”
— Josh Silver
“I lived my life one way for 35 years, for me. And then the focus came in on what I really was.”
— Pete Maravich
“I only want to do better work. That’s the focus of my life.”
— Ajay Devgan
“I think being a competitive diver for years helps you focus and dedicate yourself to what’s needed.”
— Jason Statham
“I think everybody’s got different methods of working which suit the particular individual. Mine is to sort of play the part, and give 100%, to concentrate and focus on it while I’m actually working, but then leave it behind until the next day.”
— Sean Bean
“I think fantasies are for the birds. Anything I wanted to do, I did. If there’s something I want, nothing stops me.”
— Calvin Klein
“I think the lack of precision and deep focus is why it took me years to build up my work.”
— Gil Kane
“I try to learn from the past, but I plan for the future by focusing exclusively on the present. That’s where the fun is. And if it can’t be fun, what’s the point?”
— Donald Trump
“I wasn’t losing my focus but I was getting tired of focusing. What I was focusing on was becoming too routine, too ritual, not something that was interesting, new and exciting.”
— Picabo Street
“I’m aware of my audience in a way, and I do try to engage with them while I’m trying to go about my business of thinking. I believe they help me by providing a focus.”
— David Antin
“I’m someone who loves to enjoy life and tries to focus on real things and real friendships. That’s why I live very simply.”
— Cameron Diaz
“It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.”
— Bruce Lee
“Instead of focusing on that circumstances that you cannot change – focus strongly and powerfully on the circumstances that you can.”
— Joy Page
“Instead of focusing on the world’s problems, give your attraction and energy to trust, love, abundance, education, and peace.”
— Rhonda Byrne
“It has been the way of Rotary to focus thought upon matters in which members are in agreement, rather than upon matters in which they are in disagreement.”
— Paul Harris
“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.”
— Aristotle Onassis
“It is really hard to do comedy; it takes a lot of energy and focus. It’s rather like music: It’s a lot of hitting notes precisely.”
— Christine Baranski
“It is those who concentrate on but one thing at a time who advance in this world. The great man or woman is the one who never steps outside his or her specialty or foolishly dissipates his or her individuality.”
— Og Mandino
“It is wise to direct your anger towards problems – not people; to focus your energies on answers – not excuses.”
— William Arthur Ward
“It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”
— Steve Jobs
“Like sheep that get lost nibbling away at the grass because they never look up, we often focus so much on ourselves and our problems that we get lost.”
— Allen Klein
“Live life to the fullest, and focus on the positive.”
— Matt Cameron
“Most people have no idea of the giant capacity we can immediately command when we focus all of our resources on mastering a single area of our lives.”
— Tony Robbins
“My ego is controlled enough that I don’t have to be the focus.”
— Herbie Mann
“My focus is not on solving nature’s deeper mysteries. It is on using nature’s deeper mysteries to solve important societal problems.”
— Philip Emeagwali
“My focus is to forget the pain of life. Forget the pain, mock the pain, reduce it. And laugh.”
— Jim Carrey
“My sole focus as far back as I can remember was all about my dream to become a singer.”
— Sheena Easton
“My success, part of it certainly, is that I have focused in on a few things.”
— Bill Gates
“One of the keys to thinking big is total focus. I think of it almost as a controlled neurosis, which is a quality I’ve noticed in many highly successful entrepreneurs.”
— Donald Trump
“One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals. And so when I hear about negative and false attacks, I really don’t invest any energy in them, because I know who I am.”
— Michelle Obama
“One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular.”
— Tony Robbins
“One very important aspect of motivation is the willingness to stop and to look at things that no one else has bothered to look at. This simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity.”
— Edward de Bono
“Organize as much as possible around teams, to achieve enhanced focus, task orientation, innovativeness, and individual commitment.”
— Tom Peters
“Our aim was to insure repeat business based on the system’s reputation rather than on the quality of a single store or operator.”
— Ray Kroc
“Our focus is on outputs rather than inputs.”
— Stephen Cambone
“Our thoughts create our reality – where we put our focus is the direction we tend to go.”
— Peter McWilliams
“People who consistently win have a clear and thoughtful strategy. They know what they need to do and when they need to do it. They write it down so they stay on course, and avoid any alternative that does not get them closer to the finish line.”
— Dr.Phil
“School, I never truly got the knack of. I could never focus on things I didn’t want to learn.”
— Leonardo DiCaprio
“Singing was the big focus and outlet for me.”
— Debra Wilson
“So I think instead of focusing on the competition, focus on the customer.”
— Scott Cook
“The ego is nothing other than the focus of conscious attention.”
— Alan Watts
“The focus and the concentration and the attention to detail that flying takes is a kind of meditation. I find it restful and engaging, and other things slip away.”
— Harrison Ford
“The Great Secret of Life is the law of attraction that says like attracts like, so when you think a thought, you are also attracting like thoughts to you.”
— Rhonda Byrne
“The more a person feels skilled, the more her moods will improve; while the more challenges that are present, the more her attention will become focused and concentrated.”
— Mihaly Csikszentmihaly
“The news anchor is exactly that – an anchor, a center, a focus.”
— Jessica Savitch
“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.”
— Bruce Lee
“The three pillars on which I believe any business success is based are: Persistence, Enthusiasm and Focus.”
— Max Markson
“There is nothing wrong with dedication and goals, but if you focus on yourself, all the lights fade away and you become a fleeting moment in life.”
— Pete Maravich
“The future is finally something that we can now put into focus.”
— Lou Gramm
“The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire not things we fear.”
— Brian Tracy
“The only way to advertise is by not focusing on the product.”
— Calvin Klein
“The secret to success is focusing on what will work, and seeing it through.”
— Max Markson
“To attract money, you must focus on wealth. It is impossible to bring more money into your life when you are noticing you do not have enough, because that means you are thinking thoughts that you do not have enough.”
— Rhonda Byrne
“To create something exceptional, your mindset must be relentlessly focused on the smallest detail.”
— Giorgio Armani
“To hate is to show you still care, who needs that, focus on what’s really important.”
— Henry Rollins
“To me, living in the present means being aware of your conscious choice to focus on the past, present or future – it is not necessarily having to focus on the present.”
— Bo Bennett
“Ultimately, we wanted Nike to be the world’s best sports and fitness company. Once you say that, you have a focus. You don’t end up making wing tips or sponsoring the next Rolling Stones world tour.”
— Phil Knight
“We believe this combination of excellence in operations and strong execution of our strategy is critical to achieve our vision. We will continue to focus on both in future as well.”
— Azim Premji
“We can always choose to perceive things differently. You can focus on what’s wrong in your life, or you can focus on what’s right.”
— Marianne Williamson
“We don’t focus as much in schools on educational knowledge which requires thinking and application, as we do on acquiring facts.”
— William Glasser
“We each focus on what we’re going to buy, but that’s an incorrect focus. Focus instead on why you want to spend the money on this or that. What feeling in you does it satisfy?”
— Suze Orman
“When I worked with Jamie Lee Curtis in True Lies, she told me, You need a plan B, because when you have six months to a year off, you can go nuts. You need to have another focus.”
— Eliza Dushku
“When I chased after money, I never had enough. When I got my life on purpose and focused on giving of myself and everything that arrived into my life, then I was prosperous.”
— Wayne Dyer
“When there is a voice in a piece of music, we tend to focus on the voice. That is probably something from when we were babies and we depended on hearing our mother’s voice.”
— Robert Wyatt
“When exercising, be sure to focus your attention on what you are doing.”
— Lee Haney
“When walking, walk. When eating, eat.”
— Zen Proverb
“When you do not know how to focus your thoughts effectively, they can become scattered, miscellaneous, and fixated on “stuff”-negative notions, toxic relationships, and situations from the past.”
— Darren L. Johnson
“When you focus on being a blessing, God makes sure that you are always blessed in abundance.”
— Joel Osteen
“Whenever your mind is totally absorbed in whatever activities you are performing, your mind will remain calm and content.”
— Chin-Ning Chu
“Where focus goes, energy flows. And where energy flows, whatever you’re focusing on grows. In other words, your life is controlled by what you focus on. That’s why you need to focus on where you want to go, not on what you fear. When you next find yourself in a state of uncertainty, resist your fear. Shift your focus toward where you want to go and your actions will take you in that direction.”
— Tony Robbins
“You cannot help the world by focusing on the negative things. As you focus on the world’s negative events, you not only add to them, but you also bring more negative things into your own life.”
— Rhonda Byrne
“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”
— Mark Twain
“You have got to have discipline and focus – on the customer and how you run the business.”
— Jim Cantalupo
“You have to figure out what that is, and you have to make a plan to get to it. And the plan has got to have a timeline. You have to choose something that you can afford to do and then lock it in and passionately do it.”
— Dr.Phil
“You shouldn’t focus on why you can’t do something, which is what most people do. You should focus on why perhaps you can, and be one of the exceptions.”
— Steve Case
“Your current conditions do not reflect your ultimate potential, but rather the size and quality of goals upon which you currently are focusing.”
— Tony Robbins
“You’ve just got to focus on excellence and try not to be distracted by the news and the rumors and the absurdities of the stories that were coming out.”
— James Daly
If you have a favorite quote on focus that I don’t have in my list, please share in the comments.
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