one of the most counterintuitive rules of life is “the more you try to do the less you will accomplish”.  What that means is that the more different things you are involved in the less you will accomplish, and the fewer different things you are involved in the more you will accomplish. The reason is obvious as you think about it. The transition time between events in our day is the least effective and the most wasted time in our day, and the greater number events means more transition time, and the fewer events the less transition time will be in any given day. Another reason is that all of us do a few things really well and we are mediocre at best at everything else. Those who focus on doing the things they are good at accomplish so much more with their life then the person who tries to do it all.  It requires self-knowledge and self-discipline to live a focused life. You have to truly know what you are good at , gifted at, and then not let all the other stuff distract. One of the main battles is that the stuff in our life that is urgent is seldom important, but we allow the urgency of activities to crowd out of our life the most important things that have the greatest potential to make a lasting difference in our life, the lives of those around us and in the world. The most effective tool in my life to help me stay focused is my goals. I choose ahead of time what I Will spend time on. Because I have a lot of goals, 67 this year and 68 this coming year, some might think I am violating this rule, but most of my  goals are all related to accomplishing a few really important objectives in my life. My annual goal list is my priority list, my time budget, my energy budget, and a major prayer list. As I get older and my energy level becomes less I need to become more and more focused. My mission statement beginning on October 22nd is ” I want to accomplish more in the next 10 years of my life than I have in the last 40 years of my life.” The only way that will be more than a nice statement is by becoming increasingly more focused on the gifts God has given me.