 In today's day and age where we're constantly bombarded with distractions, especially those of a digital nature, I don't know that it's realistic for us to expect ourselves or to expect our teammates to have long periods of uninterrupted sustained focus. What I want each and every one of you to work towards is having an awareness of when your mind wanders or when you become distracted and quickly be able to refocus your lens. So you may need to refocus dozens and dozens of times over the course of the day and that's fine. But first we need to start heightening that awareness. You will never ever improve something that you are unaware of. You'll never fix something that you're oblivious to. So as soon as you can be aware of the fact that your mind's wandering or you're distracted, then and only then can you refocus that lens. So what do we want to refocus the lens on? Write down this acronym, WIN, W-I-N, stands for What's Important Now. That's a question you should recalibrate and ask yourself dozens and dozens of times over the course of a day. Ask yourself what is the most important thing right now that deserves my attention in the present moment? I'm a huge believer that time is our most precious resource, which means our attention in the present moment is the number one currency we have to play with. Where you put your attention in the present moment shows what you truly value and we want to make sure we're investing that as best we can as many times throughout the day. So you need to ask yourself what is the most important thing that deserves my attention right now in the present moment? Throughout the workday it's most likely something that you're working on, a project or a proposal or doing something with a client or a customer, but I also want you to make sure you take that home with you and then when you're sitting at dinner at night with the family, they deserve your attention in the present moment and they should be what's most important now. So don't ever forget that win acronym. And ultimately talking about what's important now is a different way of talking about living in the present moment. The short definition of being present is to be where your feet are. Be where your feet are. Wherever your feet are, make sure that's where your head and your heart are as well. A more extended definition of being where your feet are and being present means you're able to refocus on the next play, you refocus on what you have control over and you refocus on the process. Let's take a look at next play. As you heard from my bio and some of the stories I've told so far, I've spent most of my life around the game of basketball. And why would a basketball coach want his players to always be focused on the next play? It's the only one they can do anything about. You just turn the ball over. It's okay. Next play. You just miss the wide open layup. Next play. I know the referee missed a call. It happens occasionally in basketball. Next play. Why would a coach want his players focused on the next play? Because they can't do anything about the turnover, the missed shot or the referees missed call. And any time, energy, or emotional currency they spend in the past worrying about the play that just happens means they're not able to invest it in the present moment which means they're not able to perform at an optimum level. So we have to have very short-term memory and be able to always move to the next play. And obviously that was a very basketball specific analogy. I want each and every one of you to be able to think of all of the things that go on throughout your day. And all of the time you have an opportunity, whether something goes to your liking or not, you have the opportunity to quickly move to the next play. See we don't want a previous experience to have a negative effect on the current experience. So we have next play. The second pillar that we want to refocus on is controlling the controllables. I'm a huge believer that there's only two things in this world. We have 100% control over 100% of the time. That's our effort and our attitude. Now I don't want this to be a game of verbal semantics. Yes, if you take some effort and attitude and you mix them together, you have preparation. You certainly control how prepared you are for every situation you go into. And you take some effort and attitude and mix them together and you get enthusiasm. You certainly control the enthusiasm that you bring whenever you show up. But those are really just spokes off of the same wheel, which is effort and attitude. So let's dissect effort for just a moment. I'm willing to bet that if I had a one-on-one conversation with each and every one of you, and I asked you the last time that you gave a truly great effort, was that something that you chose to do? Did you choose to work hard? And I'm willing to bet you would acknowledge the affirmative and say yes, because working hard is a choice. But here's something really important for all of us to adopt and to embrace. If working hard is a choice, there has to be another side of that coin. If working hard is a choice, that means not working hard? Well, that's also a choice. And it can't be a choice that you make very consistently if your goal is to perform at your maximum level and to be truly happy and fulfilled. You have to make the choice to give your best effort as consistently as possible. And then the other half of that is going to be our attitude. And this really is very similar to what I described from a mindset standpoint. See, we do not control the vast majority of things that happen around us. We always control our response to those things. Circumstances, events, what people say, what people do, we don't control any of that. But we absolutely control how we choose to respond to that. And we need to make sure that we consistently choose a response that works in our favor, that moves us forward, that improves our situation. And one very important disclaimer that I want to make. We don't control these things that go on in the world, but we do control our response. Now, this doesn't mean that the things that are going on are things that we like, certainly doesn't mean that the outcomes we're getting or outcomes we prefer, but that's irrelevant. It doesn't matter whether or not you like what's going on or you prefer what's going on. What matters is you take control of your response to it. And when you can learn to respond favorably to the best of your ability as consistently as you can, then you're able to be focused on the right things. And the third pillar of that is to continually focus on the process. I know for each and every one of your businesses, you are outcomes driven. You most likely have goals, quarterly and yearly and numbers that you're trying to hit and that is fantastic. I always want you to have a North Star and a guiding light. But once you and your teams have decided this is what we're trying to achieve, this is what we're trying to accomplish, I want you to take your focus off of that and I want you to put it onto the process, the micro steps, the things that need to be done every single day to greatly increase the chance that you'll get the outcome that you're working towards. The best analogy I can think of that is if you were ever tasked to build a brick wall, I don't want you worried about the wall. I want you focused on laying each brick individually with as much care and precision as you can. See if you lay each brick exactly where it needs to go, the wall will take care of itself. And the best example I can give you, and this is done brilliantly about sticking to the process, is in Charlotte, North Carolina, Queens University, their men's basketball program is one of the top division two programs in the United States. Coach Bart Lundy and his staff do a phenomenal job at that division two level. They produce pro after pro every single year. And Coach Lundy and his staff have figured out that there are four key metrics, four data points, four analytics that heavily influence whether or not they win the game. And just to be clear, I understand how much similarity there is between basketball and business, but I also recognize there are some differences. One of the biggest differences Simon Sinek recently pointed out, and that's the difference between a finite game and an infinite game. Basketball is a finite game. The team that has the most points on the scoreboard when the final buzzer goes off has declared the winner. That's it. Business it's not as cut and dry, it's more of an infinite game. I know we talk about winning at business and so forth, but there's real no definition of that. And you don't have competition as clear cut as an opponent wearing a different colored jersey. So what you all are trying to do in the business world is much more of an infinite game. It's evergreen and it's ongoing. But you can still learn this lesson from Coach Lundy and his staff. He broke down film over a five year period and found that when Queens University comes out on top in these four different categories, number one is turnover differential. If we can have more possessions than our opponent, it gives us a better chance to win. Two, offensive rebound differential. If we can collect our own missed shot and get more shots than our opponent, it gives us a better chance to win. Number three, free throws attempted. Per possession, the free throw is the highest percentage shot in the game of basketball. And if we can take more of them than our opponent, it gives us a better chance to win. And four, our three pointers attempted. The three pointer is a massive weapon in today's game. And if we can get more clean looks from three than our opponent, it gives us a better chance to win. Coach Lundy figured out that when Queens University comes out on top in those four categories, they win 97% of their games. I'm going to say that again because it's incredibly important. When Queens University comes out on top in those four statistical categories, they win 97% of their games. It means they're statistically almost unbeatable. So what do you think Coach Lundy and his staff talk about, reinforce, and emphasize in every workout, every practice, every film session, and before every game? Just those four things. They trim the fat. They get rid of the fluff. He doesn't talk about or worry about anything else other than those four things because those four things are what lead to winning. He designs his practices based around those four things. He doesn't do drills just to do drills. He does drills that will directly impact their ability to outperform their opponent in those four things. So once again, why do I share that with you? I want each and every one of you and your teams to figure out what are the key metrics and analytics that lead to what you've determined and you've defined as winning. What are the things that you need to emphasize and reinforce and talk about every single day? Because in doing so and getting everybody involved will greatly increase the chance that you'll reach that North Star that you've already set.