Navy SEAL Sniper in Total Focus: A Life in Balance

Keep your balance by keeping your life in balance…

I have previously written about embracing a healthy state of obsession. Before closing this section, I want to put that in perspective. Because total focus is not the same thing as tunnel vision, where you are literally unaware of everything outside your field of attention. Tunnel vision is not focus. It’s being an ostrich with your head in the sand — otherwise known as blissful denial.

In business, it’s also known as suicide.

You have to stay aware of it all and at the same time be totally focused. Like most truths that really matter, this is a paradox.

Front sight focus is also not the same thing as being a workaholic. As a sniper, you can’t keep performing with consistent accuracy on the gun if you neglect your physical fitness or let your health go to seed. Yes, for those minutes or hours when you’re lying prone and drilling your eyesight on a target a thousand yards off, your body becomes a nonexistent irrelevancy. But the only reason you can perform like that is that you’ve been taking care of your body day in and day out. (We’ll talk more about your health and fitness in the future.)

The Same Holds True for Your Business and the Rest of Your Life

The only way you can successfully and consistently focus on your business is if you maintain your health, family, relationships, and the rest of what makes you a human being in a healthy state of balance. There’s a point where work takes precedence. And whenever that point comes, you know you simply have to lock the doors and focus yourself on getting the job done. Likewise, there’s a time when you have to shift your attention to your family, kids, girlfriend or boyfriend, and circle of friends.

If you see those things as taking away from your business, then you’re not looking at it right. Those things aren’t detracting from your business. They are what allows you to be successful in your business.

A few years ago, Men’s Journal wrote a profile on me. It included this day-in-the-life excerpt from my Facebook page:

“My last 30 hours: 0400 Uber to JFK, 0600 nonstop to LAX, CBS studios, lunch with Mark Harmon (great guy), kids call, CNN call, dinner with friends and agent Valarie, friend Sally drops me at LAX, miss flight, standby for 1130 to JFK, coach seat secured, flt crew upgrades me to 1st class sleeper, 0730 land, 0830 NYAC [New York Athletic Club] swim 2,000 meters. Start my Saturday.”

This is pretty typical for me. Am I busy? I am.

Keep Your Life in Balance

At the same time, as I write these words, I have just finished a week, have unplugged, and I’m off the map with my three kids, somewhere in the Northwest having a blast. Total dad time. It’s one of those things that give my life depth and meaning. Without it, I’d be a pale copy of myself.