The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. – Stephen Covey
Must... Stay... Focused...
What does that mean?
Let’s see if we can dissect the quote, shall we? If I’m reading this right, there are three “main thing” repetitions. Let’s color code them to make this easier.
The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
So, the point of the quote is to keep the main thing front and center.
Did that help at all? In short, the quote is about keeping focused on the main thing, and not be distracted by all the other (non-main) things going on around you.
Why is focus important?
Um, what? Yeah, this post. It’s a little late because I lost my focus and was working on other things when the deadline came and went (true statement). That makes this post ironic at best, and my actions leading up to this post moronic at best. Needless to say, I will be working on rebuilding my backlog so this doesn’t happen again.
Focus, per this quote, is what you do to keep your eye on the ball, and stay on top of what is really important. We’re all going to drop the ball from time to time, but it’s important to learn from the mistake and try to come up with a better method to keep focused on what is important.
First you have to determine what is “the main thing” in your life. It may change depending on your role or what you are doing. At work, it’s probably different than at home. Different as a Dad than as a Husband (or Mom vs Wife). And we haven’t even spoken about emotions and how that changes everything. We also haven’t talked about the needs of others, which can sometimes change our role, and therefore what is “the main thing.”
Where can I apply this in my life?
But how do you define what is important in your life? How many different roles do you play in your life? Grab some paper and start with the categories of activities. Work, home, church, friends, activities, hobbies, family, and whatever else you can think of as broad categories. Now, select one of the categories and come up with the different roles you play within that category.
Here is just a few I came up with, focusing on the category of home, which includes the following: blogger, husband, father, playmate, disciplinarian, coach, handyman, tinkerer, geek, musician, chauffeur, referee, censor, and friend. This list will change the next time I go through this exercise, so don’t sweat it if you don’t come up with much this time around.
Let’s take the chauffeur as an example. When taking the kids to school, you are chauffeur as well as giving the daily pep talk, making sure they know when they’ll be picked up, double checking after school activities and occasionally refereeing a squabble. But the main thing, at least while the car is moving, is the role of chauffeur. The consequences of loosing focus on that particular task could be anything from a ticket to a serious, possibly life threatening accident. Focus; it can be that important.
So what did you come up with for your roles? I hope you left some room after each one, so that you can add a ‘main thing’ for each of them. The main thing for me as a blogger should be timely delivery of useful content. The main thing for me as husband is to take care of my wife. The main thing for me as a father is to protect my family.
What did your list of main things end up looking like? Did you find that some roles have more than one, depending on the situation? Will you be willing to take the time to select a different aspect of your life and try the exercise again? I hope you will, as I have found that the journey of self investigation is always an interesting one.
The main thing for this exercise wasn’t to determine with absolute certainty and for all eternity, what the main things were for every possible situation. The idea was to get you thinking about how fluid some of these main things can be, as roles change through out the day. And, of course, to help you keep your focus on the main thing.
From: Twitter, @motivatquotes
confirmed at : http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/s/stephencov110198.html
Photo by karpidis
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The main thing is / to keep the main thing the main thing. In other words the main thing is the keeping of the main thing in the main thing state.
– Now, what is the main thing?
– The keeping of the main thing…
– But what the hell is the main thing?
– The keeping of the main…
– SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY, WILL YOU?!
Might have something to do with logistic regression, regression fallacy, Agrippa’s trilemma and infinite regress. Not sure.
If the keeping of the ‘main thing’ in the ‘main thing’ state is the main thing then we’re saying the main thing is the ‘keeping of…’ and so we get that the main thing is “the keeping of…¹ the keeping of…² the keeping of…³” leading to infinity where no actual main thing exists. There’s the concept of main thing and this guy is redefining this concept by enclosing it in its very state, i.e. the state of being a main thing.
So there’s two meanings in here. One makes sense right off the bat and the other is plain gibberish.
In the first one it only makes sense because the second main thing (which is supposed to be the object and the real main thing out of the others) is assumed to be something undetermined that takes the form of whatever you want it to. For example if cats are the main thing for you then the main thing is to keep them in this state: don’t let your main thing change from cats to anything else!
The second is just some kind of circular reasoning that naturally keeps leading to itself or to nowhere. If we assume the main thing for this guy is the keeping of this “main thing” he is supposed to be redefining in the main thing state then we will never know what the hell is this main thing supposed to be. It’s like saying “the main thing for me is what I’ll describe right now…” but never actually describe anything. Try saying “A cat is the keeping of a cat in the cat state”, you’re just postponing your description of what a cat actually is and what’s worse: you’re using the very thing you’re supposed to be describing inside your description.
I think I just got schooled. My head is still spinning, but thanks for the comment!
The “main thing” quote is nonsense.
Sorry you feel that way. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you can find something here you like. Over a thousand quotes from which to choose. 8)
OK, I said I’d do something to fix this so it didn’t happen again. Tomorrow’s post was done hours ago, and the one for the day after is mostly done. I’m building up a backlog, and getting ahead of the game. That’s Plan A. We’ll see how long it takes to get to Plan B. 8)