April 8, 2020 — Greetings! So, the “freight train hamster wheel” lifestyle is on pause…have you noticed? Have you REALLY noticed? If you don’t stop to feel it, now, before it comes back, you will have MISSED OUT. I like imagining places like New Orleans, Las Vegas, New York and Paris with almost zero people out and about. Letting the Earth breathe….nice.
Now on to my message of the day.
As described in yesterday’s post, I joined the Power of You course with Mel Robbins in 2017 or 18. For each member, the ultimate objective was to reach deep inside, set a goal, and achieve it without getting in your own way. Mel taught us to have courage and confidence and turn our backs on the Head Trash Monster that stops us before we even start something important.
My goal was to GSD (“get shizz done”) using dedicated time blocking because, wait for it, I’m a squirrel with a million ideas and a lack of follow-through…constantly finding myself following some shiny new object that just went over the moat. (Dory and I really get each other! If only I’d met my ENFP self back when I was in the Power of You course…)
Guess what? I AM STILL STRUGGLING WITH TRYING TO TIME BLOCK.
In my Self Improvement Crush Journey blog post, I neglected to mention a GREAT book that has been transformational for me and continues to aid me in my endeavors: The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. The podcast, the course, the community. All my jams!
What is so simple, so beautiful, so DIFFICULT, about it is that you must zero in on the ONE THING that you need to do to achieve whatever you’re seeking. (If only we had daily access to some majestic mountain top to sit and ponder our ONE THING, right? Well, we might never come down in this current climate of virus quarantine)
But it is not necessary! When you are faced with a quandary, big or small, when you feel overwhelmed and paralyzed with inaction, ask yourself THIS:
“What is the ONE thing I need to do right now, that in doing so, makes everything else easier, or unnecessary?”
If you’ve have never seen that focusing question before, then I encourage you to read it over a few times in a row, slowly. It is powerful.
I love its (maddening) simplicity.
You have probably heard the saying, “Multi-tasking makes you stupid.” or “multi-tasking is a myth/misnomer” These statements are true: our brains can only do one thing at a time, and when you think you are “multi-tasking” then you are actually “task-switching” which has been scientifically proven to slow you down, to the degree of being impaired by drugs. Crazy, right??? But TRUE.
(truth: social media is responsible for so much of my task-switching)
FOCUS. Beautiful focus. Elusive, seductive focus. The things you can achieve when focus is in your tool belt…could you write a book without focus? Doubtful. You could certainly write bits and pieces of great stuff, but arranging it in a cohesive fashion to create an actual book or course or keynote or TedTalk? That requires that intangible yet powerful thing called FOCUS.
Check out this acronym for FOCUS:
Follow
One
Course
Until
Success
I want to credit the right person that I heard this from….Lisa Woodruff of Organize365, I think??…(shoot! that’s what happens when you are a self-improvement productivity junkie groupie like myself! It could have been Mridu Parikh of Life is Organized, Tonya Dalton’s book The Joy of Missing Out, or even someone else)
Regardless, it’s spot on. If you start something and actually intend to finish it, or at least a certain piece of it, following one course until success is a GREAT way to GSD, wouldn’t you agree? As an ENFP, a creative squirrel, I need TOOLS. I wish I had a boring library cubicle with no social media. I wish I had a bunker or a hotel room. I get SO MUCH DONE in hotels when I am on “dance mom” weekends and my kid is in classes all morning and afternoon.
Being at home all day all the time with a hubby and 2 teens, it’s so hard to find focus. LET ME TELL YOU! True, they do not need my attention all the time for basic needs and keeping out of danger like when they were “littles” (God bless all of you that are in that phase right now 24/7…stay strong and treat yo’ selves), but I am CONSTANTLY distracted none-the-less. It’s my own mindset issue, though. I’m not fully committed to finishing, apparently. I love to blame outside forces for my distractions. unless it’s a true emergency involving blood or fire, I am only distracted if I, myself, allow it.
When I’m in the garage gym doing online yoga class, I wouldn’t DREAM of jumping up to take care of something or someone (unless there was blook or fire), RIGHT?
LIGHTBULB!! “go to online yoga class” when I need to GSD. Tell my family that I’m not available and don’t bother me unless there’s a really good reason. I think I just found my ONE THING to help me get some FOCUS on:)
True confessions. I don’t really read other people’s blogs that much. Yet day after day I sit down to blog and am hoping that someone out there is reading it. ah that’s pretty funny actually. I’m not sure why I blog. I am not sure what the theme of my blog is, but anyway…I blog. And I desperately hope I’m not taking myself too seriously!
Or maybe it’s just self-therapy.
Cheers! -ryan:)
