Ever experienced a deal that almost worked out, where you wouldn’t have even imagined that something could go wrong at that last stage when it was as good as done, and just when you took it a bit easy and relaxed yourself, all of a sudden something unexpected happened and the deal just disappeared into thin air?

I’ve had such experiences a number of times. I’ve set my mind to achieve something and things have moved rapidly in the required direction, unexpected things have happened in my favor as though what I’ve been seeking was just waiting to happen unto me. And just when I thought that it has been achieved, and moved my attention to something else, the whole series of events have all of a sudden got nullified through the occurrence of something totally unexpected. What has been common to all those instances, has been the fact that I have assumed that it is almost achieved and before it is actually achieved, shifted my attention on another goal.

I am not speaking about this just in the context of a business deal or a big target that you would have set out to achieve. This very well applies to many of the small things that one wants to do on a day-to-day basis too. For all the work that goes into making the plan work, it is unfortunate, and a total disappointment for things to go wrong at the very last moment. We all deserve better than that for our hard work. It is the nature of the human mind to take it a little easy when something seems to have been almost achieved. We somehow stop pursuing it with the same level of passion with which we initiated it or carried it forward when things seemed to be difficult at times. Sometime we loose focus on the target for at least a short while, possibly in the bargain of thinking about the next thing that we would be able to give our time to upon achieving the task at hand. The important point to note here is that the lack of passion towards the end need not be just in terms of the actual physical effort that is directed towards the goal. In many cases, it could just be the lack of concentration, the failure to continue to apply your mind to stay focused on the goal.

What I learnt from these experiences is to appreciate the very obvious fact that what is being sought after is never yours until it is really yours. The deal is never achieved until it is sealed! Obvious as it may sound, it is the obviousness of this truth that leads almost everyone to be carried away into not paying attention to it. The secret towards achieving more in life and not losing out on such close-to-success opportunities is to keep your focus and not become complacent by the seemingly achievable nature of the goal. Never divert your attention onto something else when something important is almost on the verge of being achieved. See it going through; and then move on to the next goal only and only after sealing it off and confirming that it has been achieved for sure!