Have you ever been driving your car when all of a sudden something to the left or right of you catches your attention and you become fixated on it for a few minutes? By the time you return your attention to what's in front of you, you hit your brakes so you won't hit the car ahead of you, or you have to quickly turn your steering wheel, so that you won't drive your car off the road. Have you ever had that experience?

Or, have you ever asked someone a question while they were preoccupied? Did you find yourself asking the same question two or three times before you received an answer?

If you can relate to the incidences above, you have witnessed the power of focus. When we are intently focused on something,we're oblivious to what's going on around us.

This is how top achievers realize their goals. They set a goal, and focus only on achieving that goal. They don't let anything or anyone distract them from the goal they want to achieve. They think about their goal constantly. They focus on nothing else but making their goal a reality. When we have this kind of intensity and focus, achieving our goal is just a matter of time. But the key is to focus on one goal at a time. When we put all of our energy and effort into one goal, we achieve faster and bigger success.

When I was growing up, I remember going outside on a sunny day to experiment with my magnifying glass. I would hold my magnifying glass over a leaf. Then I would let the rays of the sun come through my magnifying glass to one particular spot on the leaf. In minutes the leaf would start smoking and eventually catch fire.

However, I discovered that when I moved my magnifying glass to different areas over the leaf without focusing on one particular area, nothing would happen. A fire would start only when I focused on one area of the leaf. By the same token, when you are trying to focus on several goals at the same time, it's very difficult for you to make anything happen or accomplish any of the goals especially within a reasonable amount of time. By concentrating on one goal at a time, you light a fire inside of you. You expedite the achievement process. When you focus on one goal at a time, you'll find yourself constantly coming up with different ideas to achieve that goal.

It's a know fact, that we're unable to concentrate or think about two thoughts at the same time.

For example, a couple of weeks ago, I called up a friend of mine. I asked him if he was busy, he said no. He said was watching a football game. I told him that I'd call him back after the game was over. He insisted that I go ahead and talk, because he said that he could concentrate on the football game as well as listen to what I had to say. I knew he couldn't, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Within a few minutes of the conversation, he kept asking, ''What did you say?'' ''Could you repeat that?''

Just like my friend had a difficult time trying to concentrate on what I had to say, and watch a football game; you'll have a difficult time trying to focus on achieving more that one goal at the same time. The ability to focus only on one goal, is what separates the winners from the losers, the top achievers from the achievers, and the highly successful from the successful.

Now lets take a test on focusing.

Whether you are at home or work, look around the room or office you're in and focus on everything that's brown. Take no more than fifteen seconds to focus on the color brown.

Now without taking your eyes from this article, name everything in the room that's blue. And remember, no cheating.

I know what you're thinking, ''You said focus on everything that's brown.'' That's right, I did. But that happens to be part of the test.

You see, if you had a difficult time naming items that are blue, you passed the test.

You proved to yourself that you're able to focus on one thing at a time; and block out everything else.

Now, when you look around the room, I'm sure you will find many items that are blue in color.

But by using the power of focus, you concentrated only on one color, the color brown.

This is what happens when we focus on one goal at a time. We're unable to see anything else but our goal.

And when we can see nothing else but our goal, the achievement of the goal is inevitable.

And success is well within our reach, because we've learned how to use the power of focus.