The enemy of focus.

Something remarkable happened inside my business last year.

And not the good kind of remarkable.

We’d spent some time brainstorming our Christmas period with a plan to remove all the noise so our team could focus on a shared objective during a busy time. 

It looked great. Simple.

But then as we started discussing the execution, it got really messy. 

A simple concept called Triple the Cheer with three objectives turned into:

• A new service acronym the team had to learn and implement
• A complicated sales metric process to record and celebrate
• And a list of activities we were doing to keep it fun

All on top of the team’s actual job during a busy time of the year. 

I feel silly even writing it.

Thankfully, we have a wonderful team, so it all got done. 

But none of it particularly well if we’re honest with ourselves.

There was just so much going on which made it impossible to:

• Fully adopt and deliver new service expectations
• Get the metrics filled out and celebrated as you hoped
• And make sure the culture is on track and everyone’s happy

The thing is, even though it was clear we were adding layers of complexity where we didn’t need to, I didn’t stop it so it's on me.

During my Christmas debrief I thought a lot about how this same thing has happened repeatedly in the past. 

We set a priority as a team and then it would quickly become multiple priorities with a list of expanded objectives and to-dos.

Each one dilutes the original message and pulls focus from the main goal.

And at the start of the year when you’re setting annual goals it’s no different. 

We always start out with good intentions by writing a few simple goals and then as humans, we just seem to add complexity to it. 

Getting healthy - turns into new diets + new complex fitness programs + trying to adopt new habits. 

Why do we always add more more more!

In business, and especially for the people in management who’re setting the priorities, we have to force ourselves to keep shit simple. 

Focus on trying to do fewer things, but execute at a high standard. 

I think this is the cause of my feeling ‘undisciplined’ for so many years. 

I was trying to do too much. 

Continuously expanding on simple things making them more complex and therefore unachievable or poorly executed.

Back then, I always felt like chasing ONE priority didn’t feel like I was getting enough done.

But now I see it’s because the standards you have for executing aren’t high enough. 

It’s not about ticking boxes to show you got it done like we did at Christmas.

It’s about picking 1-3 things and absolutely nailing them at a high level. 

When you choose high standards, it forces you to reduce the number of priorities. 

Do less. But do it better. 

Focus on less. But achieve greater results.

That’s what my 2025 is all about. 

And I hope it resonates with you too. 

Have a wonderful week.