External Focus Quotes

Those who glory in their looks - not in their hearts - dress to please others.

A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business.This minding of other people's business expresses itself in gossip, snooping and meddling, and also in feverish interest in communal, national and racial affairs. In running away from ourselves we either fall on our neighbor's shoulder or fly at his throat.

I think it's important to look at the world as a bigger place than just the bubble that we live in. It's so easy to get caught up in things of a trivial nature.

Men go forth to marvel at the height of mountains, and the huge waves of the sea, the broad flow of the rivers, the vastness of the ocean, the orbits of the stars, and yet they neglect to marvel at themselves. Variant: Men go abroad to admire the heights of mountains, the mighty billows of the sea, the broad tides of rivers, the compass of the ocean, and the circuits of the stars, and pass themselves by.

There are multiple ways to be externally focused that are very successful. You can be customer-focused or competitor-focused. Some people are internally focused, and if they reach critical mass, they can tip the whole company.

With age come the inner, the higher life. Who would be forever young, to dwell always in externals?

If you get trapped in the idea that what is most important is what image of yourself you're giving to the world, you're on a dangerous path.

I think what I've learned to do is not look inward as much.

I feel that it is healthier to look out at the world through a window than through a mirror. Otherwise, all you see is yourself and whatever is behind you.

Distraction is our habitual state. Not the distraction of the person who withdraws from the world in order to shut himself up in the secret and ever-changing land of his fantasy, but the distraction of the person who is always outside himself, lost in the trivial, senseless, turmoil of everyday life.

You need to have a life outside your career.

For things that worth little or nothing we care a lot; and we oversight what is necessary; because every man goes towards the exterior; and if he doesn't regain consciousness quickly, with pleasure remain involved in it.

We're always in that head space about the audience and less about us at that moment.

We live in a world of things, and our only connection with them is that we know how to manipulate or to consume them.

Much of the time, we're transfixed by all of the ways we can reflect ourselves into the world. And we can barely find the time to reflect deeply back in on our own selves.

Form as a goal always ends in formalism. For this striving is directed not towards an inside, but towards an outside. But only a living inside has a living outside.

Americans are notoriously ill-equipped for self-reflection. We're usually a very boisterous, outward-moving bunch of people, but we don't understand that much about ourselves or how other people perceive us.

Absorption in things other than self is the secret of a happy life.

When we turn our attention away from ourselves, our potential is limitless.

People don't know anything about themselves because they're all worried about everybody else.

Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.

To save the mind from preying inwardly upon itself, it must be encouraged to some outward pursuit.

Miserable are the persons who do not have something beyond themselves to search for.

Core competence, as it is used by many managers, is a dangerously inward-looking notion. Competitiveness is far more about doing what customers value than doing what you think you're good at.

Whatever you get paid attention for is never what you think is most important about yourself.