How To Win A Minion / Focus 2014

I know how to win a minion. Not a million, but a minion.

We frequently holiday at traditional British seaside towns. As someone who believes in developing traditions and creating memories for the Kids, each holiday typically includes a brief visit to an amusement arcade.

This last holiday to Norfolk was no exception.

This post isn’t a debate on the rights and wrongs of gambling, and whether children should be encouraged to part with their hard-earned pocket-money on the promise of winning big.

This is about how I saw the power of focus in real-time. How I finally had an analogy of how to focus. A memory to recall when I start to lose focus.

Maybe it’ll help you also. Maybe you can also win a minion.

Let me set the scene.

Armed with two small tubs of 2 pences (about £2 in total) we hit the slot machines.

Scanning the arcade there was an abundance of choice. But we wanted the minion, my Son and I. One particular minion sitting on top of a stack of 2 pences, in one particular machine

We won the minion, and I banked a memory of how employing focus works.

Let me share my train of thought as I emptied our tubs of coppers into the slot…

Remember to keep your eye on the prize – achieving your aim is all about focus. Simple as that really. The minion was in our sight. We wanted it. We were focused on getting it. And guess what? We did.

Re-invest your assets – we didn’t get the minion immediately. What we did get was lots of 2 pences cascade down. But no minion. It would have been tempting to take our winnings, or hedge our bets. To presume we’d come as far as we could and move on. Rather the money was reinvested in achieving our objective.

Do not deviate or spread yourself to thin – we had options. The slot machine we were playing on was within a carousel of 4. Looking round it would have been easy to think that another slot machine had better odds. Or to become discouraged with our chosen course, and transfer to another. The strategy of playing on multiple machines and spreading the investment of our focus, could have been employed. But it wasn’t. We stuck to our guns.

Practising patience – minions come to those who wait, as do good things (or so the saying goes). As I get older I appreciate the virtue of patience more and more. I daily see the benefits of having a little patience in all areas of life. In a society when we want it all, immediately, patience doesn’t seem as popular as it used to be. Patience and mindfulness are probably 2 of the most important attitudes I have practised over the last couple of years.

Do not listen to naysayers – the term naysayers I first encountered when discovering Ev Bogue years ago. It may be a commonly used term, but I had never heard it before 2009. It perfectly sums up many people we encounter through life. Those who find it so much more comforting to presume the worst – or rather, as they see it, be realistic. But is it realism or pessimism? I was told whilst playing on the slot machine that we would not win the minion. I didn’t listen. In this instance (and in many more I’ve experienced) the naysayer got it wrong.

Go with your gut – we all have tuned in instincts. I believe we have an inbuilt non-verbal guidance system. Feelings and emotions, rational or irrational can point us in a direction, that may or may not work out as planned, but may well be the destined direction intended for us. Rather deep thinking when just trying to win a minion. Regardless we won the minion. I knew we would, there was no doubt.

Set a time-frame and limits – all of the above being said, there is a time to move on. Recognising that time is a valuable asset and possibly only learnt through experience. Sometimes we get it wrong, not going that extra mile can lead to future regret. In this instance to win a minion I had a finite monetary amount to spend. I knew we had to achieve the goal within that limit – the limit helped achieve the goal. Which we did.

My word for 2014 is focus – I’m curious how do you focus? And achieve your goals?