Transcription
Most business owners think their biggest problem is not enough time. It's not. It's weak attention in the time they do have. They lack the ability to be 100% focused and present. Having operated in special forces in hostile environments where losing presence had real consequences, trust me, I know.
Today, I'm giving you a simple three-step framework to actually be present and focused on what's in front of you. Because here's what's actually happening when you can't stay focused. Your brain is doing exactly what it's designed to do. When your nervous system is overloaded and in high-stakes environments like business, your brain shifts into threat scanning mode. It looks ahead for problems or replays what's just happened. Jumps between stimuli because it thinks it needs to protect you.
In combat operations, your nervous system will spike to anticipate threats. That's a good thing, but you need to be able to come back down from that and take control of the moment in front of you. Because if your attention gets dragged into what's coming next or what did I miss, then you lose clarity on what's right now. That's why presence isn't a mindset trick, it's a state. And you have to create that state before you can use it. This is a competitive advantage when 99% of people are always distracted. Follow the next three steps and you'll forge the power to be present on demand.
Step one is regulation. Elite performers don't treat presence as a discipline problem, they treat it as a physiological problem first. In special forces, we built this into how we operated. Before a job, there's a natural spike in your nervous system. If you let that run unchecked, you burn energy before anything is even happened. So, you manage your state. Are you wired, rushed, running on caffeine and cortisol? Because if you are, presence is not the next step, regulation is.
On a big picture level, these are the basics: sleep, movement, hydration, intentional eating that fuels you rather than a load of sugar that just spikes your system. You already know this. The question is whether you're actually doing it, or are you cutting corners because you're too busy?
On a tactical level, when you're in the moment and you feel scattered, 1 to 2 minutes of deliberate deep breathing will also change how your brain operates faster than anything else. It's why in marksmanship, deep breathing isn't optional, it's fundamental. You control your breath to control your body and create a stable platform before taking the shot. It's the same principle under pressure. Regulate the breath and you regulate the system, giving yourself the control to execute. When the nervous system settles, presence and focus naturally follow.
Once your state is right, step two is this. Treat attention as a form of respect. In the military, if you're caught on your phone during a briefing, you better stand by. You're going to be called out in front of the whole room for being unprofessional. And in the world of special forces, that is one of the worst marks you can get against your name. It's not tolerated. Where your attention goes tells the room exactly what you think matters. And that standard directly translates into business, even though most people never get called out for it.
When you're in a client meeting and checking your phone, you're telling that person your screen matters more than they do. When you're supposedly working but flicking between tabs every 90 seconds, you're disrespecting your own process. And when you're at home with your family but mentally still in your inbox, you're physically present and emotionally absent. And all humans feel that immediately. If you think you're hiding it, you're not. In your life, if someone or something has your time, it deserves your full attention. That's the professional standard.
Step three for presence is be where your feet are. Step three is the operational rule that ties it all together. Back in basic training for the Royal Marines, instructors would repeatedly say, "Remember where you are." It was a reminder that you chose to be there. You might be wet, tired, and cold, but being at the Commando Training Center was a privilege. It was a cool to stop mentally escaping. You chose to be here, so be here. And you can apply that to pretty much anything. It's the idea that wherever you physically are, that environment is the only environment that matters right now. If your feet are in the gym, you train. If your feet are at your desk, you work. If your feet are at home, you're at home. Here, now, this.
As an entrepreneur, you're constantly context switching. You might go from a supplier call to a creative brief to a financial spreadsheet to picking up your kids, sometimes all in the same afternoon. Most of the friction you feel isn't the workload, it's the mental residue you carry from one thing into the next. You never fully arrive anywhere because you never mentally leave the last place. Being where your feet are is the discipline of containment. It means you finish things before you start the next thing. You arrive before you engage.
The quality of your work improves because your attention is no longer fragmented. Your training becomes more effective because your mind is actually in the session. And your relationships feel more connected because when you're with someone, you're actually with them. Elite performers don't obsess over finding more time, they obsess over wasting less of the time they already have. And the biggest source of waste is divided attention. Being present isn't about trying harder to focus, it's about engineering the conditions that make focus inevitable.
Regulate your nervous system first, treat attention as respect, and then apply the simplest operational rule, be where your feet are. Do this consistently, and presence becomes automatic because presence isn't a personality trait, it's a practice. When you do the reps, it becomes second nature. If you found this video helpful, I've got a load more to share with you. Like and subscribe to get them delivered to your feed on a weekly basis. And remember, that performance comes from training. Do the reps.