The Four Things That Make (or Break) Focus
My 4-part CORE Focus Formula
I used to think focus was just about willpower.
Pick a goal, shut out distractions, and push through. Simple.
Until I realised I could be laser-focused on the wrong thing.
Or clear on the big picture but hopeless at following through.
Or great at sticking to my plan, right up until life happened... and all my goals and systems went out the window.
One client showed me this. She had crystal clarity about her long-term mission. She could talk for hours about the change she wanted to create. But her days were chaos: no systems, no structure, no rhythm. The result? Her focus felt strong, her direction was clear, but nothing really moved foward.
I’ve also seen the opposite: people (I’ve been there too) with rock-solid systems who are incredibly efficient… at doing work that doesn’t matter (to them, the people that matter, the world at large).
That’s when it clicked. Focus isn’t one thing. It’s not a single skill or habit. It’s a set of practices and they reinforce each other. If one is missing, the whole thing wobbles.
The four aspects of focus that work together:
Clarity: What truly matters most, and why.
Ownership: How to consistently act on what matters.
Reset: How to recover and refocus right now.
Extend: How to shape the focus of others.
Yes, I went for an acronym: CORE.
It fits. If your CORE is in place, your focus stays strong from the inside out.
Clarity: What truly matters most — and why
When focus wobbles, it’s often not because we’re lazy or undisciplined, but because we’re unclear.
I once worked with an NGO leader who had endless energy and charisma. Every meeting was electric. But behind closed doors, she admitted she didn’t know if her daily work was adding up to the change she wanted to see in 10 years. She was chasing momentum without a map. The moment we got clear on her long-term direction, her decisions became sharper and her team felt it instantly.
Clarity lives in the macro: the long-term horizon. It answers questions like:
What do I want my life’s work to stand for?
What am I building over decades?
Who am I becoming?
This is the realm of identity, values, purpose, personal philosophy, taste. Without clarity here, every opportunity looks equally urgent or 'interesting'. You spend your life rearranging to-do lists and following other people's priorities instead of building your life's work.
If you’re stuck here, try this: write down three things you’d be proud to have given to the world in 30 years’ time. Then, ask “Why?” after each one, at least three times. You’ll often find the roots of what truly matters to you.
Ownership: How to consistently act on what matters
Clarity without ownership is like a beautiful map you never follow.
Ownership lives in the meso: the medium-term execution layer. Days, weeks, months, years. It’s about building systems, structures, and habits that keep you moving.
This is where you set goals, plan, and track progress. Ownership turns intentions into actions. It's where the battle against entropy - the natural pull toward disorder - is won or lost.
What I've found when I work on this with clients: it takes work and discipline to set these systems up. They often experiment a few months until something clicks and starts working. And then the benefits rush in. It's like clearing a blockage. By now it's not a surprise when I see it. I then know that the person has high ownership: not because they push harder or use more willpower but because they don't rely on willpower. Instead they rely on systems that make the right action the easy action (and reserve their willpower for the unexpected and the adaptations).
A simple rule to build that kind of ownership: if it keeps coming up, build a system for it. That might be a recurring calendar block, a checklist, or a team ritual.
But don't go too far too soon. System structure needs to be earned. Start small and build your systems over time, by testing what works for you, not in theory but in practice.
Reset: How to recover and refocus right now
Even with clarity and ownership, your focus will still get hijacked by an urgent email, a restless mind, or a bad night’s sleep. This is where we need the ability to reset.
Reset lives in the micro: the moment-to-moment. It’s the ability to notice you’re off track, pause, and return to what matters right now.
Sometimes this means micro-practices like:
Naming the distraction out loud.
Standing up and taking deep breaths.
Closing all tabs except the one you’re working on.
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve sat down to write, only to end up 'accidentally' deep in my inbox. Last week, in the middle of a project, I caught myself five Safari tabs deep into something irrelevant. Instead of pushing through in frustration, I stood up, stretched, and took three breaths. That was enough to give me 30 more minutes of focused time to finish my work for the day. Or yesterday: I was stuck writing a client pitch. So I went out grocery shopping. Halfway to the supermarket, the solution came to me.
Reset starts with accepting that we're imperfect and that we can influence but not control most things in life. No matter how clear you are on what matters to you or how well your systems and habits work for you... you will get off track. And then reset is about recovering faster and moving on.
Extend: How to shape the focus of others
This last part is the multiplier.
Your focus is your personal power. Your multiplied focus is your leadership.
Extend is about how you help others know what matters, act on it, and stay with it.
It’s how a manager cuts through noise for their team. How a campaigner rallies people around one clear message. How a parent helps a child handle strong emotions.
Extend happens when your clarity lights others’ paths, your ownership inspires action, and your resets model resilience.
If you want to extend focus, start by asking:
Do the people around me know what matters most to us right now?
Do they have the space to act on it?
Do they see me living it?
When you extend your focus to others, you stop being just a person who’s 'good at getting things done'; you start becoming someone who shapes what gets done in the first place.
I like the 'CORE' acronym because it signals strength, foundations, focus from the inside-out.
At the same time, you build CORE flexibly. Your entry-point could be any of the aspects. You might start with a micro reset during a chaotic day. Or with a big-picture clarity session when you feel adrift. The point is to keep cycling through all four.
So, if you feel scattered this week, do a check-in:
Do I need clarity?
Do I need to take ownership?
Do I need a reset?
Or is it time to extend?
Let me know: What's focus for you? What's an aspect I have missed?