Focus Distraction Quotes & Sayings

A good portfolio manager knows which companies to keep and which ones to let go. Many a GP has struggled with portfolio companies that cannot meet their value-creation milestones, or raise additional follow-on rounds of capital, or generate target returns in a time span of, say, five to seven years. The faster you recognize those losses, the better it is."
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"As David Cowan says, "Just focus on your top five - the rest is distraction." The harder part of the investor's discipline is to know when to quit."
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"You have to constantly scan all of those things and be willing to adjust your own sense of what's a reasonable outcome and move the company into a position where it has the maximum chance to succeed. "
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"Time is your enemy: Portfolio companies always take twice as much capital and twice as long to exit. Early-stage companies rarely meet milestones as planned and always burn cash faster than anticipated. — Mahendra Ramsinghani

The relative ease of most driving lures us into thinking we can get away with doing other things. Indeed, those other things, like listening to the radio, can help when driving itself is threatening to cause fatigue. But we buy into the myth of multitasking with little actual knowledge of how much we can really add in or, as with the television news, how much we are missing. As the inner life of the driver begins to come into focus, it is becoming clear not only that distraction is the single biggest problem on the road but that we have little concept of just how distracted we are. — Tom Vanderbilt

I carried this problem around in my head basically the whole time. I would wake up with it first thing in the morning, I would be thinking about it all day, and I would be thinking about it when I went to sleep. Without distraction I would have the same thing going round and round in my mind.
(Recalling the degree of focus and determination that eventually yielded the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem.) — Andrew John Wiles

Band has really been the one thing that allows me to experience somewhat of a distraction. They say music heals, right? I'm able to exist in all my weirdness right in the middle of a big crowd of people, but all I really have to focus on is playing my own part, marching with the correct foot, and being where I'm supposed to be on the field. - Rigby Raines — R.K. Slade

Door money. It's a distraction. It impedes judgment. It blurs focus. Chasing the almighty dollar can become the root of all evil, the bane of one's existence. — Carlos Wallace

I am trying not to philosophize. It is un-military. I think I can dig myself out of my academic mind and make an efficient officer. — James Carl Nelson

There's nothing like the peace of the countryside, the quiet and the lack of distraction. It helps you to focus your mind. — Jenny Nimmo

Rituals and celebrations help kids feel connected and valued. This is where the rubber meets the road in terms of "quality time." If parents make an effort to create traditions, and then routinely, reliably practice those traditions, they are sending a message very loudly that their kids aren't just a bothersome distraction from plowing through the to-do list but are the central focus of life. — Meg Cox

The distraction, particularly of technology, impedes the innovative process. And when you add to that the distraction of working with colleagues who are in different time zones and/or who have a different approach to urgency and distraction, the potential for losing focus is abundant. — David Livermore

The result of information overload is usually distraction, and it dilutes your focus and takes you off your game. — Zig Ziglar

One cannot underestimate boredom as an incentive to write. — Philip Zaleski

we sulked and, in the finest tradition of bored soldiers, sat around throwing stones at each other. — Patrick Hennessey

When the world seems to be spinning out of control I choose:
faith over fear;
action over paralysis;
focus over distraction;
reflection over reaction;
to stay grounded rather than getting swooped up in the chaos. — Charles F. Glassman

Are you trivialising the sisterhood if you dye your hair or have your eyebrows threaded? I'd say the answer to that is no. But equally, it's a perfectly valid feminist thing to say there is a certain amount of attention on a woman's appearance, and I don't wish that to be the focus or a distraction. — Louise Mensch

Goals for the future distract from worry and anger about the past and redirect your focus to the direction you're travelling in. — Sam Owen

Like all great readers, he could create for himself a "wall of stillness". — Philip Zaleski

When people are demoralized, they lack the energy to heal the source of their fear. So they fight their fear or surrender to it. Either way, the focus is on fear. Without healing, fear overcomes them, and they sink into depression and immobilization. Since the fear is often quite reasonable, a distraction from it is what I call wise unreasonableness. — Bruce E. Levine

This is the definition of clutter: things that exist in your outer life to distract you from the inner things that you're avoiding. If you avoid something, it grows.... The great thing is, the reverse is also true: when you honestly look at something, it shrinks. When you see the situation for what it is, bypassing the emotional layers that coloured it and made it into a clutter monster, it becomes simple. That's how peaceful clutter busting is. You're honestly looking at each layer of distraction, questioning the thing, letting it go, and realizing what's underneath. Looking directly at something has the power of a magnifying glass in the sun. The sun is you; the glass, your attention — Brooks Palmer

Eliminate all distractions and focus on things that add value to your life — Sunday Adelaja

We could express this power in the following way: Most of the time we live in an interior world of dreams, desires, and obsessive thoughts. But in this period of exceptional creativity, we are impelled by the need to get something done that has a practical effect. We force ourselves to step outside our inner chamber of habitual thoughts and connect to the world, to other people, to reality. Instead of flitting here and there in a state of perpetual distraction, our minds focus and penetrate to the core of something real. At these moments, it is as if our minds - turned outward - are now flooded with light from the world around us, and suddenly exposed to new details and ideas, we become more inspired and creative. — Robert Greene

Don't switch off. Stay engaged. Resist distraction. Concentrate. Focus. Be present. Smell the coffee. Taste the food. Listen to the speech. Keep that Latin accurate. Stop thinking about what's coming next, stop checking the mobile, and relish what's happening now. Seize the day. For all you know, it's the only one you've got. Live in the moment. — Gyles Brandreth

We need to focus on our gift and never allow ourselves to be distracted from the execution of our purpose — Sunday Adelaja

JFK had to act before his fragile body betrayed him. — David Pietrusza

Learn how to delegate. If you try to do everything yourself, you will end up really stressed. Delegate what can be delegated so you can focus on what really does need your attention. Write down all the important things you need to do. No matter how good your memory is, a little distraction can take your mind off the important stuff. However, no matter what distractions you may have, the list will always remind you of what you need to do. — Amber Brooks

If it was bliss to be alive, to hunt was rapture. — Barbara W. Tuchman

What reading does, ultimately, is keep alive the dangerous and exhilarating idea that a life is not a sequence of lived moments, but a destiny ... the time of reading, the time defined by the author's language resonating in the self, is not the world's time, but the soul's. The energies that otherwise tend to stream outward through a thousand channels of distraction are marshaled by the cadences of the prose; they are brought into focus by the fact that it is an ulterior, and entirely new, world that the reader has entered. The free-floating self
the self we diffusely commune with while driving or walking or puttering in the kitchen
is enlisted in the work of bringing the narrative to life. In the process, we are able to shake off the habitual burden of insufficient meaning and flex our deeper natures. — Sven Birkerts

Your main target should be to find and develop your own unique individuality and not let your focus be sidetracked and drift to external things — Sunday Adelaja

After giving it some thought, I've decided to name my monkey mind Ricky Bobby. I was thinking about Latin names like Javier, but I don't want to make my jumping, distractable self sound mysterious and sexy. Ricky Bobby makes me laugh. A name like that seems silly, not strong. Just a goofy little thing that doesn't know what to do with its hands, likes to go fast, and loves tiny, infant, baby Jesus. — Anna White

The sound shivers through the walls, through the table, through the window frame, and into my finger. These distraction-oholics. These focus-ophobics. Old George Orwell got it backward. Big Brother isn't watching. He's singing and dancing. He's pulling rabbits out of a hat. Big Brother's holding your attention every moment you're awake. He's making sure you're always distracted. He's making sure you're fully absorbed ... and this being fed, it's worse than being watched. With the world always filling you, no one has to worry about what's in your mind. With everyone's imagination atrophied, no one will ever be a threat to the world. — Chuck Palahniuk

Focus helps you do something. Distraction makes you avoid doing anything. — Mani S. Sivasubramanian

Potential was a red herring to plot a life of wandering curiosity. — Nicholas Dawidoff

The author explores the result of endless choice. It is not only overload, but a profound loss of unity, solidity, and coherence in life. — Os Guinness

He wanted to live without distractions; he wanted to focus all the life-force he had left on this last book. But now it was hard to concentrate. There was something new in his life. There was the painful distraction of desire. — Brian Morton

Too many people believe that everything must be pleasurable in life, which makes them constantly search for distractions and short-circuits the learning process. The pain is a kind of challenge your mind presents - will you learn how to focus and move past the boredom, or like a child will you succumb to the need for immediate pleasure and distraction? Much as with physical exercise, you can even get a kind of perverse pleasure out of this pain, knowing the benefits it will bring you. In any event, you must meet any boredom head-on and not try to avoid or repress it. Throughout your life you will encounter tedious situations, and you must cultivate the ability to handle them with discipline. — Robert Greene

As an artist, you have to maintain focus and eliminate the distraction of second-guessing yourself based on the opinions of others. — Dwight Yoakam

When you are soul-centered, you can focus your attention where and when you want to, easily, without distraction. You know to look for what you want to see and experience. You know that what you seek you shall find, and what you focus on in life will be more prominent in your awareness. You know your awareness is powerful and creative." ~ Sarah McLean — Sarah McLean

As with almost every long oration, there were loose ends. — Richard Brookhiser

Who can be astonished at anything, when he has once been astonished at the manger and the cross? What is there wonderful left after one has seen the Saviour? — Charles Haddon Spurgeon

A distraction can be your greatest gift to yourself. Remember, when it starts to feel like our thoughts are thinking us, it's due to the fact that we have developed certain patterns of thoughts that keep us stuck. When we are able to successfully distract ourselves we can withdraw from these mental ruts and change the direction of our focus and, in turn, the course of our daily lives. — D.S. Luca

It's alright to keep and open mind, but at a certain point - once you have thoroughly completed your homework - you have to learn how to stop and focus on intensely and passionately executing these goals step by step. You have to repel the distractions. — Injap Sia

A survey of Canadian media consumption by Microsoft concluded that the average attention span had fallen to eight seconds, down from 12 in the year 2000. — Timothy Egan

My distraction's my defense against this lack of inspiration Against this slow deflation Yeah the further the horizon The more it holds my gaze The foreground's out of focus but you know I kinda hope it's just a phase Just a phase. — Ani DiFranco

These distraction-oholics. These focus-ophobics. — Chuck Palahniuk

I took to it very quickly. I'm very imaginative anyway, and it just set off that part of my brain. It made me focus in on the actors a lot more. I didn't have the distraction of looking at my surroundings. — Dennis Haysbert

Not surprisingly, because too much attention to one object leads to distraction, this one object conceals everything else, and when we focus on one point on the map we know that all other points are eluding us. — Witold Gombrowicz

If you just focus on the trees swaying outside the window without distraction, you will see your true face. — Sam Harris

Efforts to deepen your focus will struggle if you don't simultaneously wean your mind from a dependence on distraction. — Cal Newport

The very first time I saw you," Daniel continued, "it wasn't any different than any other time I've seen you since. The world was newer, but
you were just the same. It was - "
"Love at first sight." That part she knew.He nodded. "Just like always. The only difference was, in the beginning, you were offlimits to me.
I was being punished, and I'd fallen for you at the worst possible time. Things were very violent in Heaven. Because of who ... I am ... I was expected
to stay away from you. You were a distraction.
The focus was supposed to be on winning the
war. It's the same war that's still going on."
He sighed.
"And if you haven't noticed, I'm still very
distracted. — Lauren Kate

The pain is kind of challenge your mind presents - will you learn how to focus and move past boredom, or like a child will you succumb to the need for immediate pleasure and distraction? — Robert Greene

Upon further reflection, and after meeting with the President of MSNBC, I have tendered my resignation. It is my sincere hope that all of my colleagues, at this special network, will be allowed to focus on the issues that matter without the distraction of myself or my ill-judged comments. — Martin Bashir

In 2009, New York Times reporter Matt Richtel earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting with a series of articles ("Driven to Distraction") on the dangers of driving while texting or using cell phones. He found that distracted driving is responsible for 16 percent of all traffic fatalities and nearly half a million injuries annually. Even an idle phone conversation when driving takes a 40 percent bite out of your focus and, surprisingly, can have the same effect as being drunk. The — Gary Keller

If thou rememberest that thou art going to heaven, thou wilt not sleep on the road. If thou thinkest that hell is behind thee, and the devil pursuing thee, thou wilt not loiter. — Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Having a set of goals is a good thing for many people. But when a goal takes your focus off God and His daily intentions for you, it can cause trouble. Being driven by my plans can shift the focus of my heart from following God and being open to His unfolding invitations, to following only that which leads me closer to my desires. For me, I started falling into a trap of making plans each day around what I wanted to see happen. Anything that wasn't part of my plan became a distraction and an unwelcome interruption. — Lysa TerKeurst

Serious people are not easily distracted! — Israelmore Ayivor

This culture of distraction was nothing new. Christianity was born into one. — Mark Sayers

For success, focus has utmost importance, but distraction is disastrous. — Debasish Mridha

I'm gonna go put my earplugs in and practice piano for hours until my fingers bleed. I practice the piano with the focus of Helen Keller - and nothing can distract me from the scent of the music.
-Karen Quan and Jarod Kintz — Karen Quan

To stay grounded and feel secure,
I choose:
Faith over fear;
Action over procrastination;
Focus over distraction;
Reflection over reaction. — Charles F. Glassman

The great anxious focus on the minutiae of appetite - on calories and portion size and what's going into the body versus what's being expended, on shoes and hair and abs of steel - keeps the larger, more fearsome questions of desire blurred and out of focus. American women spend approximately $1 million every hour on cosmetics. This may or may not say something about female vanity, but it certainly says something about female energy, where it is and is not focused. Easier to worry about the body than the soul, easier to fit the self into the narrow slots of identity our culture offers to women than to create one ... that allows for the expression of all passions, the satisfaction of all appetites. The great preoccupation with things like food and shopping and appearance, in turn, is less of a genuine focus on hunger - indulging it, understanding it, making decisions about it - than it is a monumental distraction from hunger. — Caroline Knapp

Are you placed where others are sitting down idly, doing nothing? Rise to the work with all your powers; and when the sweat stands upon your brow, and you are tempted to loiter, cry, No, I cannot stop, for I am Christ's. If I were not purchased by blood, I might be like Issachar, crouching between two burdens; but I am Christ's, and cannot loiter. — Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Our normal human tendencies are distraction and dissipation. We begin one task, then get seduced by some other option, and lose our focus. We drift away from what is difficult and we know to be true, to what is comfortable and socially condoned. — Daniel Pinchbeck

The biggest distraction in life to one's focus is often near locus standing people saying all hocus-pocus. — Anuj

The phrase "having it all" has little to do with having what we want. — Jennifer Senior

FOCUS, FOCUS, CONSOLIDATED FOCUS.
BEWARE OF DISTRACTION — Ikechukwu Joseph

Everything in the world is information. The information you choose to acknowledge and the information you choose to ignore is up to you. You can let outside factors beyond your control throw off your focus. You can let aching muscles hold you back. You can let silence make you feel uncomfortable. By choosing to focus only on the information that is necessary, you can tune out every distraction, and achieve far more. — Ronda Rousey

Focus on one thing and do not scatter your attention — Sunday Adelaja

A stronger focus on quality public policymaking and less distraction of personalities would be a sufficient and important contribution I can make. — Jay Weatherill

It should be clear by now that my focus here is not freedom of speech or the press. This freedom is all too often an exaggeration. At the very least, blind references to freedom of speech or the press serve as a distraction from the critical examination of other communications policies. — Mark Lloyd

The battle between focus and distraction is a serious problem - both to the competitiveness of our companies and to our own sanity. — Jocelyn K. Glei