Don’t you just hate tests? I didn’t like them in school and still don’t. At work there’s nothing worse then a training program with a test at the end. Takes all the fun out of it.

Oddly enough, I’ve never hated any of my careers even though they were loaded with tests. Not the textbook type but the real life ones that come with consequences that can make or break you.

Real-time career “tests” teach us things we need to discover.

I started my career teaching high school English in an upscale community. That was an eye-opener for me, coming from a small town where summer vacation was a sandy bungalow at the Jersey shore, not sailing for a month in the Caribbean.

I worked with some highly credentialed teachers, including an equity actor, a concert cellist, and a former medical resident who discovered he didn’t like being around sick people so he became a teacher.

Now here I am, fresh out of college, trying to hold my own with these colleagues while building some “teacher credibility” with kids used to breathing rarified air.

Here was my test:

• Demonstrate content knowledge in my field
• Earn the respect of my colleagues
• Prepare and deliver educationally sound classes
• Reach my students in positive ways to help them learn

So, when my classroom door closed each period, my career tests began.

One afternoon, I was explaining gerunds and participles to a class of freshmen. You can just imagine how riveted they were.

I was teaching with the ecstasy of the fire-and-brimstone preachers of old when, suddenly, I felt something hit my forehead. Yes, the sensation was right between my eyes. A soggy thump.

There was a sudden hush in the room. No idle stirrings. My already racing mind had it figured out in an instant. I was just hit by a spitball...and it was one for the record books.

“What do I do?” my mind screamed within my skull.

“Keep going,” it yelled back.

And that’s what I did. I kept going. I didn’t miss a beat. Those gerunds and participles were in the grip of my conscious focus.

The class didn’t move for the rest of the period. The perpetrator walked out with everyone else sans the spotlight he’d hope for. He knew that I knew, but nothing was ever said and nothing ever happened again in that class.

Staying focused holds everything together.

Focus is essential to success in our careers, our businesses, and our personal lives. But it’s not easy because distractions are the enemy of focus.

We need targets that help us keep our eye on what’s important. That’s why, in our work lives, we need to ground our focus in:

• Goals that guide us toward completing the important things
• Standards that ensure we’ll produce a quality job, not a slipshod one
• Personal integrity that drives us to do the right thing, not the expedient
• Self-discipline and inner strength that enables us to stand our ground

Staying focused takes us from the start to the finish.

I didn’t know that being unflappable in the face of that awful spitball would somehow solidify my stature with those freshmen. I only knew that staying focused would get me through an unexpected challenge. I’d passed my acid test.

When we stay focused, we position ourselves to become more business fit. Our tests often teach us exactly what we need to know!