The Power Of Focus January 29, 2007
Rather than setting New Years’ Resolutions and setting myself up for failure from the start, I’m going to try a variation on Steve Pavlina’s suggestion of Setting Your Primary Focus.
Steve’s idea is basically to set a primary focus for the year ahead, and to make everything else secondary to that. For example, last year his primary focus was to improve his financial situation. He fixed up his business structure, improved his financial education, explored new revenue sources, and developed lots of great content for his web site to increase its traffic. As a result, his earnings went from $2-3K/month at the start of the year to $30-40K/month by the end of the year!
I’m focusing on health
For me, the one area of my life that trails all the others is my health. Although I made great improvements last year, I’m still overweight and I’d like to be fitter. No other area of my life nags at me the way this does, so it’s a no-brainer what I need to work on.
I’m going to go a bit shorter-term, though, and make this a quarterly focus rather than a yearly one. I think it’s quite possible for me to reach my goal weight (about 80 kg) and achieve my desired level of fitness (running 10 km without stopping) within 3-6 months. By that time, the monkey will be off my back and I’ll be ready to switch focus to something else (likely something like developing passive income sources).
How does this help?
I’ve had this ‘primary area of focus’ attitude for a week or so now, and I’ve found that it definitely helps me.
I no longer feel guilty about going for a jog when I have work to do on my web sites, family photos to organise and print, or a TV show I want to watch. The jogging always comes first, and I still have plenty of time left to do some other stuff before bedtime. As long as I’ve done something to move forward in my primary area of focus today, I can do other things guilt-free until bedtime.
Desserts, snacks and large greasy meals no longer entice me like they used to. My primary focus is health, and a big part of that is losing weight. It feels wrong at a very basic level to be doing something that goes against your primary focus.
I’ve made the mental decision that nothing else is more important right now than fixing my health. Not money, not relaxing, not surfing the web, not watching TV. A switch has been flipped in my head, and nothing will stop me from reaching my goal.
If there was a way to pay $5,000 to magically be at my target weight and fitness, I’d pay it. Happily. So if I need to spend some extra money on gym membership, running shoes, or healthy food, I’m happy to. If spending time exercising means that I earn less money from my other web sites, miss a few of my favourite TV shows, and read a few less web sites this quarter, that’s just fine by me. At the end of the quarter, I’ll be at my weight and fitness goals. That other stuff just isn’t as important to me right now.
Part of what makes this work is tricking yourself into thinking that the change you’re making is only temporary. It’s similar to what makes the 30 Day Technique work. I don’t really feel deprived of all those other things because I’m only putting them off for a quarter, not permanently removing them from my life. I’ll soon be able to catch up on my TV shows and web sites, enjoy a greasy meal (with a chocolate dessert!), and curl up with a good book.
Soon, but just not today 
.
- Posted in : Goals, Measuring Progress, Motivation
- Author : admin
Comments»
[...] my previous article on The Power Of Focus, I’ve discovered a few other Steve Pavlina readers who have chosen ‘health’ as [...]
GREAT to see you back posting again. I thought you’d jumped off the wagon and we’d lost you. I entirely agree with the primary focus idea: that’s how I’m treating it as well. Having that ’simplicity of focus’ works much better than bombarding yourself with a list of goals.
[...] my new-found focus on health, I’ve really made some good progress this week. It’s like making that decision [...]
Thanks, it’s good to be back
. Things are going very well so far, and I feel confident I can keep it up until I reach my ideal weight.
[...] my Power Of Focus article, I stated my two health goals for the next 3 to 6 months. One is to get my weight down to [...]