What’s your favorite month?
I like January.
They say it’s a new year…
I know nothing is really new…
But it really does feel new.
It’s a time to start over.
Clean out closets.
Re-examine priorities.
Close doors.
And open new ones.
This month I’m back on the farm in Virginia.
Not a lot of distractions here.
No visitors.
No parties.
Not even one mob, riot or protest to join.
Just the wind and the deer and lots of time to think.
And lots of time to read.
THE POWER OF FOCUS
I told you a few weeks ago about a book I’m re-reading. It’s called The One Thing.
Here’s a sentence I underlined:
“..here is the prime condition of success, the great secret — concentrate your energy, thought and capital exclusively upon the business in which you are engaged.”
That was spoken by Andrew Carnegie in 1885.
He was the second richest man to ever live.
Another book I’m reading is Titan. It’s about John D. Rockefeller, the richest man to ever live.
Here’s a sentence I underlined in that book:
“Do not many of us who fail to achieve big things…fail because we lack concentration — the art of concentrating the mind on the thing to be done at the proper time and to the exclusion of everything else?”
Hmm. Do you see a common theme?
STUDENTS FROM THE PAST
I read these sentences and then I started thinking about my students…
There was the student whose phone kept ringing during our lesson. And when it wasn’t ringing it was beeping or buzzing or vibrating.
There was the student who could barely keep his eyes open because his new baby woke him up every night.
And there was the student who kept using German words instead of English because she was learning that language at the same time.
Is focus easy?
It is not.
Every day I go for a walk and listen to stories in Czech.
It’s very easy to let my mind worry or daydream or wish someone would invite me to join a riot…
AN INVITATION TO FOCUS ON ENGLISH FOR 28 DAYS
When I’m not out walking I’m focusing on something else.
I’m making a new course.
It’ll be ready in a week or two.
And when it is, I’ll invite you to join.
For 28 days we’ll focus on English.
And when the 28 days are over…
Well, I can’t promise you’ll be 100% fluent.
But I can absolutely guarantee you will be younger, thinner, and 17% sexier.
Because that’s what happens when your English improves.
Right?
Right.