What is your primary goal?
Do you want to finish school? go back to school? lose 10 pounds? buy a house? vacation in the Caribbean?
Regardless of your goal, your pathway to meeting this goal is the same…Set your intention, and take consistent action to move closer to the results that you want.
Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Then why is it so hard for some of us? What is preventing your from getting it done?
FOCUS (or often the lack thereof)
Jon Lee Dumas, who produces the widely popular Entrepreneur on Fire podcast constantly tells his audience that to be successful, they must FOCUS…or FOLLOW ONE COURSE UNTIL SUCCESS.
But, in our world full of distractions….hundreds of cable stations, a seemingly infinite amount of websites, and social media platforms….it is easy to have ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder).
However, lack of focus often results in accomplishing very little of value or, even worse, accomplishing nothing at all.
Below, find tips to help you stay focused on what tasks that bring you closer to spending time on what you value and achieving what desire.
- Get enough sleep. This suggestion is “near and dear” to me because I am often guilty of failing to follow this first suggestion. I get involved in a project once my kids have gone to sleep, when it is quiet, and I am working into the wee hours of the morning. However, sleep is important.When you are tired, you lack energy and are unable to focus on what you want to accomplish.
- Get a calendar and block off time to do activities that align with your goals. Thanks to technology, we have many free calendar options that will allow us to view our schedule at a glance. For the most part, I meet my needs with the calendar on my iPhone, that auto-updates with my work Outlook calendar. I also know that many people integrate the use of Google Calendar with their smartphone calendar.
Whatever calendar option you choose, it is important to actually schedule time for actions that align to your goals. Are you going to go through your house and find unneeded items to sell for money to go towards your dream of visiting the Caribbean this year? Or do you want start a regular exercise practice to better your health and reduce your stress?
Again, whatever your goal is, schedule time in your calendar so that you have a designated time to work on what is important to meeting your goals.
- Limit your time on social media, watching TV, and mindless internet searching. Let’s be real. We all love “peeking” into the lives of our friends and loved ones through their social media posts. It’s great for staying in touch and often extremely entertaining. But how much time do you spend on sites like Facebook everyday? Have you ever tracked it? I did it once along time ago, and I was horrified at the results. If you added up all of the quick checks that I made, it was sometimes hours spent on Facebook! Needless to say, I quickly set a daily time limit for visiting Facebook. Now, I try to limit myself to no more than 15 minutes per day.
While I don’t have any issues with my self-imposed time limit on social media, I have learned that many people are so tempted that they literally CANNOT STAY OFF! Luckily, there are tools that help us stay off. For instance, there is:
- The StayFocused Chrome Extension that allows you to “lock” yourself out of any website that you want for any amount of time that you want.
Stay Focused Chrome Extension
- Sometimes, we lack focus because we are going in too many directions. Our world is distracting; Oftentimes hundreds of cable stations, a seemingly infinite amount of websites, and social media platforms are competing with for our attention. You get distracted, and before you know it, minutes have turned into hours.
- If you are really distracted by websites and apps, you could even consider a paid program like Freedom, which is more customizable and can be used across all devices.
- Apps like Forest for your iPhone motivate you to stop constantly checking your phone. (The app plants a seed, which you can see grow into a tree if you avoid checking your phone. In fact, if you check it the tree with wither and die. Then, at the end of the day, Forest will summarize how many minutes you were able to focus during that day.)
- The FREE Self-Control program (for Macs) that lets you block websites or mail servers for any amount of time that you set.
- Eat well and hydrate. Sometimes, lack of focus is caused by failing to take care of ourselves. Whether or not we want to admit it, “we are what we eat.” If we eat low quality foods and fail to drink enough water, we are more likely to have less energy than if we eat more “natural foods” and drink the daily recommended amount of water.
- Reward yourself for accomplishing mini-goals. Let’s face it, we all like rewards. it is why we have so many plastic reward cards and love sales. Achieving goals is the same way; you need to reward yourself for accomplishing milestones along the way.
For instance, if your goal is writing a book, reward yourself after you finish each chapter. If you are trying to lose 10 pounds, reward yourself after you lose five. If you are trying to pay off your credit card, reward yourself after you pay off a predetermined amount.
Of course, you have to ensure that your rewards also align to your goals. If your goal was to cut expenses and pay off a high interest credit card, it is not advisable for you to go out an make an expensive purchase as a reward since that would be counterproductive. If your goal was to lose weight, rewarding yourself with a nightly hot fudge sundae is inadvisable because it would most likely negate any progress that you made toward achieving your goal.
But, be creative! There are many ways to stay focused and motivated towards achieving our goals without ruining your progress. What about a hot bath? a favorite cup of coffee or tea? an evening out with friends or loved ones? a weekend afternoon snuggled in a blanket watching your favorite movie? Think about it, and determine what works best for you.
Lack of focus prevents us from living the life that we desire. When we don’t take care of ourself because we are stressed, tired, or lack energy, we are unable to focus on what we want to accomplish. As a result, nothing much gets done. Don’t let that happen; use one of the action steps above to get focused and get results!
Is there something that you have been wanting to do, but don't know where to start?
Subscribe to join the FREE 30 Day Goals Challenge with Jennifer.