More Success With Less Stress
"My husband may be one of the most focused people I've ever met." These are the words from my wife after I had just given the keynote speech at the National Honor Society induction meeting. What in the world?? Are you kidding me? Michael Brown focused? I'm ADHD!!! I naturally struggle to stay focused.
So my wife must really know what she's talking about or she has no clue. Truth be told, she knows what she's talking about. I've worked really hard at learning how to become more focused. Why? Focus really matters and it's moved me much closer to reaching many of my goals, capturing my hopes and dreams and can I just say focus has GREATLY reduced stress in my life. Oh yeah!
A few questions: How can we improve our focus? How can focus reduce stress? Lastly, how can focus help me to capture my hopes and dreams?
Well, let's answer these questions!
How can we improve our focus?
1. Improving our focus is a process. It does not improve over night but it improves over time. Improving our focus needs to become a habit. Once it does, your focus will improve. Here are a few suggestions to improve your focus:
A. Focus on the moment. This means only focus on the "now", on the one activity you are trying to complete. Do whatever the heck it takes to reduce distractions.
B. I have to give one of my dogs my phone so they can hide my phone! Ugh...my phone has become such a distraction to me. There are social media apps, sports apps, weather apps (I'm a weather geek), thousands of apps. Hide my phone so I can stay focused.
C. Turn the TV off and turn the music on. Music helps me focus. Give it a try.
D. The alternative to being focused is doing a lot of everything, jumping from one task to another not getting a whole heck of a lot done.
2. How can we reduce stress?
We can reduce stress in our lives when we choose to do the right things. I love to say, do the right things and then you will get the right results. For me, focusing and doing the right things tends to reduce stress.
Scientist are now saying that multitasking is quite possibly not possible as far as a brain function. Studying the brain is way above me. However, what I do know is when I try to multitask, I actually work slower and not necessarily to a higher standard.
3. How can focus help you to reach your goals and capture your hopes and dreams?
Staying focused on your goals is hard. In the beginning of trying to reach our goals, we’re certainly motivated. But we all know how that motivation can kind of die out over time. We get caught up, stuck, frustrated, overloaded, overworked, distracted, and we simply just veer off track. Clearly, it’s hard to stay focused when we have so much going on.
Yes, it’s easy to let life get the best of us, but it’s not okay to veer so far off track that we forget what we truly wanted out of life and why we really wanted it. So staying focused on our goals is not only important, it’s crucial.
Listen my friends, a dream without a plan is just a wish. To stay focused on our goals, we need a plan. A plan is what helps move us from not moving at all, to achieving our goals over time. Without a plan, we’re like a fish out of water, caught floundering. Usually, we end up failing without a plan.
So, if you’re serious about your goals, and you want to stay hyper-focused on achieving them, (I do) create a plan. How will you get from where you are today, to achieving those amazing goals? Don’t just say you want to achieve them. Even envisioning them vividly enough won’t cut it. You need to construct a plan.
Your turn...
What are some things you can do to help you focus better? What things did I not mention that you do that helps you focus better?