He met with a man known for pulling in seven figures for his highly analytical and coldly logical thinking. But instead of doing a business analysis, he was going to do a life analysis for Bob.

(My version of the story)

He asked Bob one question. “What’s in the Box?”

Bob was baffled. “What do you mean?”

“You can have only one thing in the box and you’ve got to choose.” The Analyst said. He gave an example of Coke. He had asked them the same question. At the time they said their great taste was their primary focus. And so with that thinking they created “New Coke” one of the greatest marketing mistakes in history. Later the marketing heads at Coke met wth the analyst again and he told them they obviously put the wrong thing in the box. This time they put American tradition in the box- and stuck with their traditional colors and taste.

For Bob, the question of what to put in his box was a choice between money or Christ.

The analyst was atheist so he didn’t care either way.

The analyst went on to explain that you can have more than one thing in the box, otherwise you’ll oscillate between the two and never do any of them justice.

After great deliberation, Bob chose Christ.

Now the point of the story isn’t Christ over Money. In fact Bob goes on to explain that his choice hardly caused him to live without. It just made him focus more on the one thing in the box. Investing 20% of his time in the business and 80% on what he put in his box.

The story is an elementary example of focus, but it’s simplicity is what makes it so powerful. When you can visually contain your dominant focus- you draw a clear line between it and the rest of the clutter in your brain. When there can be only one thing in your box – that clarity is power.

This doesn’t mean imbalance or obsession. It means clarity for what serves as the foundation of your life. It helps you finally crystallize what should be at the base of all your decision making.

Building a future means developing on a foundation from today. To do that effectively you have to know- what’s in YOUR box?