I am happy to share that Focus is my 2024 Word of the Year.
I first wrote about the Word of the Year last January 2023 when my Word was Insight. Check out my blog about Insight. I endeavored to live with Insight, to listen to my Inner Voice. Now this year, my Word is Focus.
A number of things have pointed me towards the word Focus.
MASTER KEY SYSTEM and FOCUS
Charles Haanel talks about Focus quite a bit. After all, what you focus on expands. So it is wise to take care what it is that you are focusing on.
Attention or concentration is probably; the most important essential in the development of mind culture. The possibilities of attention when properly directed are so startling that they would hardly appear credible to the uninitiated. The cultivation of attention is the distinguishing characteristic of every successful man or woman and is the very highest personal accomplishment which can be acquired.
The power of attention can be more readily understood by comparing it with a magnifying glass in which the rays of sunlight are focused; they possess no particular strength as long as the glass is moved about and the rays directed from one place to another; but let the glass be held perfectly still and let the rays be focused on one spot for any length of time, the effect will become immediately apparent.
Charles Haanel, The Master Key System 6:19-20
Later on he reinforces this wise message.
But your ideal must be sharp, clear-cut, definite; to have one ideal today, another tomorrow, and a third next week, means to scatter your forces and accomplish nothing; your result will be a meaningless and chaotic combination of wasted material.
Unfortunately this is the result which many are securing, and the cause is self-evident. If a sculptor started out with a piece of marble and a chisel and changed his ideal every fifteen minutes, what result could he expect? And why should you expect any different result in molding the greatest and most plastic of all substances, the only real substance?
Charles Haanel, The Master Key System 12:6-7
And these are not the only references he makes to Focus. But you get the idea.
THE GREATEST SALESMAN IN THE WORLD
Og Mandino has some things to say about Focus as well. During the Master Key Experience, we read one Lesson from this book each month. Well, this month one particular passage jumped out at me in regards to Focus.
I am nature’s greatest miracle. I will concentrate my energy on the challenge of the moment and my actions will help me forget all else.
Og Mandino, The Greatest Salesman in the World, Scroll IV
But Og didn’t end things there. He went on to write another book about the Great Salesman Hafid. There is a whole Vow dedicated to Focus.
Always will I throw my whole self into the task at hand. Now I know that I cannot pursue a worthy goal, steadily and persistently, with all the powers of my mind and yet fail. If I focus the rays of sun with a burning glass, even in the coldest days of winter, I can kindle a fire with ease.
Og Mandino, The Greatest Salesman in the World Part II, Vow VII
Sounds like Mandino is echoing Haanel’s work. I have my doubts about kindling a fire with a magnifying glass today as it is indeed one of the coldest days of winter. Hafid lived in Damascus, though, not Alberta.
MY FRIEND, THE ANGEL CARD READER
This fall, I had my first Angel Card Reading. A friend of mine does these. I drew the cards, she channeled the Angels who clarified the messages of the cards. You may or may not believe in this ‘Woo-woo’ stuff, but the message was valid, so I am including it here.
The cards I drew were Miracles, Music, Focus, Retreat, Body Care.
All had a message, or nugget of a message, within. But the Focus card really hit home.
I often find that I am doing too many things at one time. And thereby, not making progress on any one of them. I always have a few ongoing projects in my home.

My friend gave the example of a counter with stacks on it, covering the work surface and not allowing progress. I laughed while I pictured the stacks of papers, notes, and stationary on my desk at home. My mind was the same, cluttered with ideas and things to work on.
She said to go home, clear everything off my desk, without sorting or considering. And to really FEEL it. To make decisions and choices with FEELINGS, not intellect or a pro’s and con’s list (guilty).
She suggested that I make a list of all those projects (I like lists) and then narrow it down to want I really want to get done first, to choose that one thing (by Feeling) and Focus on it. Work on that until it is done, then choose another item, and so on.
As I do, she said, things will fall into place effortlessly, magically.
No, my friend is not a student of the Master Key Experience, but she could be. She learned the same concepts in other ways, and is the person who most influenced me when I started on a path of learning. So I listen to her. But I still have some work to do.
If you want to learn more about these concepts too, check out the next Master Key Experience course that starts in September.