Most good ideas do not die from bad thinking.
They die from ‘Tuesday’.
In other words, they get forgotten about just as quickly as they arrive.
There is never a shortage of ideas when you’re a business owner.
Pages of possibilities get added to an already overloaded task list, along with a promise to be more disciplined and get things done. But then customers call, the team needs help, and the couch seems more rewarding. Before you know it, months have gone by.
It is tempting to treat a failure to achieve goals as a character flaw. If only you could push harder, wake earlier and apply more willpower! These can work for a little while, but remember you’re working against an environment specifically designed to fracture your attention. You don’t need more motivation… the answer lies in following a better system.
At the Business Blueprint conference in July 2026, entrepreneur and software developer Anthony Fernando explained why discipline alone is unreliable. He drew from his experience writing a book, building businesses, and completing a PhD to share a seven-step Focus Formula that business owners can use to direct their attention toward one valuable goal and act consistently on it.
The formula stops asking whether you feel disciplined today and starts asking whether your surroundings and your routines make focused action easy to repeat. It includes the following steps:
1. Choose One Focus Area and One Goal at a Time
Progress begins by narrowing the field:
- List the goals that genuinely matter to you
- Ask which one would create the greatest positive impact
- Score your current satisfaction in that area from zero to ten
- Describe what a perfect ten would actually look like
- Identify one specific action that moves you closer to it
This is what prevents you from pursuing several major outcomes at once and spreading your energy far too thinly across all the things that excite you.
2. Replace Willpower with ‘Want’ Power
Anthony argued that willpower becomes depleted precisely when you need it, when you are tired, stressed or surrounded by temptation. Forcing yourself to act with discipline is very difficult to sustain over the long term in a project.
His alternative is desire: “The alternative to willpower is something that I call ‘want power’.” Make the goal emotionally vivid, so that acting on it connects to something you deeply want rather than something you have merely agreed to.
To move away from wishful thinking, ensure your desired future still aligns with scheduled work on your calendar.
3. Create a Future Photo
Picture the moment your main goal finally becomes real:
Where are you when it happens?
What can you see and feel?
Write that scene out in sensory detail, add a target date and choose an image that represents it. Then place this photo of the future somewhere you will actually see it.
Constant reminders keep the outcome familiar and bring the goal back to your attention before distractions take control of the day. It connects an abstract ambition to a concrete moment worth working towards.
4. Turn Your Vision into a Daily Cue
Anthony recommends developing your future photo into a short vision video containing the desired moment, the ideal outcome and the reasons the goal matters to you (AI can help). Those reasons might be family time, better health, financial freedom or simply more meaningful work.
Review the video, your photo or your written description, regularly. Its job is to fuel action by reminding you why tasks relevant to your goal deserve priority over everything else that is asking for your attention.
5. Build a Focus Zone
Create an environment that makes concentration easier, not harder. A focus zone combines three things:
- A dedicated space, like a quiet desk kept for this work.
- Protected time. Treat the time you spend working toward your goal like an important appointment, not a gap in the day.
- A reliable trigger. An existing routine that signals when to begin.
Remove your notifications and decide the next task to work on before you sit down. Anthony’s rule here is deliberately restrictive, and recommends setting yourself, “Not forty-seven tasks, only three tasks.” Fewer choices reduce analysis paralysis.
6. Measure Action, Not Always Results
Revenue, fitness or a completed product can take months to shift. Measuring only the final result creates doubt long before any progress is visible. Track the actions inside your control instead.
Anthony calls this momentum. Each session that you spend focused on your goal increases the score, and missed days reduce it. The number gives you immediate feedback and turns consistency into a game. Reward yourself for showing up, which is the behaviour that eventually produces the result you are waiting for.
7. Use Community to Sustain Momentum
Focus does not require isolation.
Being part of a community of people pursuing meaningful goals provides encouragement, accountability and visible examples of progress. Seeing others act makes momentum feel normal and achievable rather than exceptional.
Your Checklist for Achieving the Goals That Matter
Discipline can help you through a difficult moment. It should not be asked to carry your entire journey to success.
To find your focus, avoid distractions and achieve your goals, follow these seven steps:
- Choose one focus area and one goal inside it.
- Build the desire, rather than relying on the discipline.
- Create your ‘future photo’ in sensory detail and put it where you see it.
- Turn this into a daily cue that reminds you why today matters.
- Build a focus zone with a space, a time and a trigger to get some work done.
- Score the actions you control, not the results you are waiting on.
- Stay connected to people who are also moving.
That structure makes progress far more dependable than another promise to try harder.
About Business Blueprint
The World’s #1 Business Program
Business Blueprint brings members the latest techniques and strategies to take control of their marketing, build better foundations and achieve the growth they are dreaming of.
If you’re tired of the business owner hamster wheel and sick of spending every day putting out spot fires, sign up for personal support, group accountability and access to the strategies that will maximise your profits and free you from the daily grind.
Membership includes:
- In-person conferences
- Weekly workshops (including AI news and training)
- Access to a library of over 1000 training videos (check out some samples here)
- Accountability groups
- One-on-one coaching calls
Want to know more? Book a call with a member of our team today.
