Focus. One simple word, and yet it can transform one’s entire life. Some folks from Silent Unity say,  

“Thoughts held in mind produce after their kind.” Or, as Mike Dooley often writes, “Thoughts become things.”  

What we hold in our minds, we grow. What we return to again and again, we create. And whether we like this or not, focus has momentum. A positive focus tends to produce more positive results. A negative focus tends to multiply the negative.  

Motivational speaker and longtime student of how thoughts and feelings shape our lives, Lynn Grabhorn, author of Excuse Me, Your Life is Waiting, would say it takes only sixteen seconds to manifest and magnify a negative or positive thought into reality.  

This is where choice comes in.  

So let me ask:  

What do you want to focus on?  

What is your heart’s desire?  

Do you want joy?  

Do you want to wade around in worry?  

Do you want to stay stuck in bitterness?  

Or do you want to live in kindness?  

Every second of every day, we are given a choice. Choice to do what is ours to do. Choice to stay on the couch. Choice to grow. Choice to blame.  

I used to have a massage therapist named Steve who loved to say, “If it is to be, it is up to me!” That woke me up. Because it’s hard to keep pointing fingers at the world when we aren’t moving our own feet.  

“It’s the government!”  

“It’s my boss!”  

“It’s because I didn’t sleep well!”  

“The baby kept me up all night!”  

We can focus on excuses all day long… or we can decide to take action.  

And speaking of focus… here in Denver, we just watched a living example of that on the field.  

On Sunday, January 25, 2026, the Broncos stepped into the AFC Championship in temperatures around fifteen degrees, with wind chills near five—the kind of cold that stings your face and makes the football feel like a block of ice. After last week’s Division win, our quarterback, Bo Nix, broke his ankle, which meant the game was placed into the hands of the backup. Talk about pressure. Talk about focus.  

The Broncos fought hard. The new quarterback did great—steady, courageous, present. And yet the second half turned into near blizzard conditions. Snow swirling. Wind howling. Visibility fading. The kind of weather where it’s hard to see the ball, hard to grip the moment, and nearly impossible to kick a field goal. In the end, the Broncos lost 10 to 7. A heartbreak score.  

And isn’t that how life can feel sometimes?  

You think you know who will carry you forward. You think you know what the plan is. And then, in one unexpected moment, everything shifts. The leader goes down. The weather turns brutal. The pressure doubles. And suddenly, someone else has to step in. A backup. An understudy. A part of you that didn’t think you were ready.   

And yet… the ball is still in your hands. The field is still in front of you. The game is still being played. You don’t move forward by staring at what went wrong. You don’t rise by living in bitterness about the scoreboard. You move forward by focusing on what is still possible. Because sometimes life doesn’t ask you to win in perfect conditions.  

Sometimes life asks:  

Can you stay faithful in the wind?  

Can you stay steady when you cannot see clearly?  

Can you keep going when the outcome is not what you hoped?  

That is the focus. That is courage. Ava reminds me of this in the smallest way. She doesn’t focus on a sock by standing over it and worrying. She focuses by grabbing it and running like the whole world is still full of possibilities.  

That is what courage looks like.  

So here is the real question:  

How are you choosing to play the game of life?  

Are you up in the stands criticizing everything?  

Or are you stepping onto the field, taking the ball, and running with courage?  

The choice is yours. You have the ball. The wind may howl, and the field may feel frozen beneath your feet, and yet you are standing in the game. This moment is your invitation to focus on what remains possible. You are playing. You are growing. Step forward with courage, and take the next faithful run toward the open sky ahead… for in this way, you’ll change the way you see and change the way you live.