Black Hole Focus: How Intelligent People Can Create a Powerful Purpose for Their Lives

By Isaiah Hankel

Why I Bought This Book

As the book title would suggest, I bought this book at a time when I felt that I lacked focus on my goals. Whilst my motivation was at a reasonable level, I felt that my efforts were scattered and consequently progress had become slow and painful.

What were the key lessons?

There are a myriad of lessons in this book and lots of useful examples given to bring the lessons to life. Here’s a snapshot of some of the lessons I picked up from this book:

• The importance of turning pain into gain, ie, strive to make the pain go away, don’t just settle.
• It’s important to be clear about what you want and then make a determined plan to achieve that outcome.
• The potential for success is all around, it’s not reserved for the privileged few.
• Always tell yourself positive and inspiring stories!
• Recognise that this is your path, others may not understand and that’s ok.
• Your decisions and actions will determine your outcomes.

Plus much, much more.

The Pros

This book covers a lot of ground, from talking about how the brain functions (why negative thoughts take hold so much easier than positive thoughts, for example) to providing tips on productivity and goal setting. As an all-rounder it does a pretty good job of inspiring, challenging and offering some practical guidance on the whole focus-success formula.

The Cons

I would have liked some extra depth in some of the areas covered, however, this is a fairly minor negative given the amount of information which is contained within the book.

Did it help?

Yes, but here’s a proviso. I bought this book in July 2014, but didn’t actually finish reading it until early January! That’s a very long time for me as I usually get through books that draw my interest within a week or two. But, to be fair to the book, I need to put this statement into context.

2014 was a bit of a tough year with some “interesting” challenges! In July, when I bought this book, these challenges were beginning to bite, hence the feeling that I needed some help with focus. As it turned out, the challenges worsened before they improved and reading (one of my joys in life) became a victim of my limited time and focus (oh the irony!).

But, having previously found value in the book, I returned to it in late November and soon finished reading it.

Recommended?

Yes! I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking to gain greater clarity in their goals and in so doing achieve superior results. There are some particularly useful pointers for those coming to their goals later in life than they would’ve wished, with some practical suggestions for how ‘mastery’ may be accomplished quicker.