Children have an uncanny ability to see the world as a place of possibility. They use their imaginations to their fullest potential: With their heads held high, they can tell you 100 different ways to use an empty paper-towel roll and spend hours demonstrating each and every one. Most adults, struggle with seeing the empty roll as anything other than garbage and would normally just throw it in the recycle bin because that is what the grown-up mind tells us to do. However, when you begin improvising, you realize that possibility is everywhere and in everything.

Working with young kids and seeing their potential and how it changes as they get older led us to conclude that, on the whole, as we “grow up” we often lose the ability to see possibility in the world around us and to use our imaginations.

A child’s perspective of the world is unique. As children we walk around looking up because everything is so much bigger than we are. Also as children, we are given permission to focus on all possibilities because we are free to play and explore. As children, we are constantly amazed by the world around us.

When we start attending school, our focus changes slightly as we now need to, at least for short periods, focus on individual ideas and the topics of education. This is of course necessary to teach kids reading, writing, mathematics, science, etc. However, this does start to narrow our focus.

As children become adolescents they continue to grow and change physically, and so do their minds. They are not only taller (causing their focus to drop slightly) but they also begin to challenge authority as they struggle against putting away childish things and picking up new ways of thinking. This is often referred to as testing their boundaries, and in most cases they receive discipline or punishment for what adults view as acting out.

As one becomes a young adult their focus changes to be more centred on the specific things right in front of them (for example specific school goals, job aspirations, etc.) and as adulthood comes upon us there are very few opportunities for us to shift our focus back upward since we worry about money and advancement at work or our own children's lives instead of our own. We focus almost solely on our work and our children.

One look at a crowded bus or street will show you where most everyone’s focus is. Downward. Down at their smart phones and tablets. We stumble through life missing the possibilities in the world we inhabit.

Sometimes we focus downwards because of fear. Over time that childlike ability to jump in and be a part of everything around us, gets stifled. Being fearless seems to be second nature to us as children and it is not until we grow up that the idea of holding back, worrying about what others think and only observing the situation due to fear of being wrong, or different, is introduced.

This inward and myopic way of thinking has most of the businesses on the Fortune 500 worried. They have indicated that a lack of creativity in the work force is reducing their ability to be innovative and meet market demands. In February 2006, Sir Ken Robinson spoke at TED talks about creativity being the foundation of innovation.

Focus UP shares that view and our goal is to help people reclaim their creativity, and their sense of wonder. Where you choose to point your focus has a direct impact on your levels of creativity. We are committed to changing the way you view the world around you and showing you how to reclaim your focus and point it in the right direction... UP!

We love helping people see how opening themselves up to possibilities will help them have more fulfilling relationships and amazing experiences in their every day lives.

One of our guiding philosophies is “Growing up, doesn’t mean always focussing down.”

We at Focus UP strongly believe that to effect change in the world you must first effect that change in yourself. As someone so succinctly put it “Be the change you wish to see in the world” (quotation attributed to Ghandi). We try to live our own lives according to our Focus UP philosophy everyday. Therefore, we are Focussing UP and looking forward to where this company will take us.