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  • Home
  • About
    • The Happy Fan Club
  • Offerings
    • Redesign Your Life 2.0
    • Get Creative
    • Personal Coaching
  • Creativity Conversations
  • LET'S CONNECT!
  • Blog
    • Live Free Your Way
    • Seeing Things Differently
    • Mistaking Assumptions for Truth
    • How Humor Keeps Us Sane
    • Know Thyself
    • Peach Pie for Breakfast
    • Explore Experience Express
    • Should You Be Downshifting?
    • Stop the Hustle!
    • Do Your Habits Serve or Sabotage
    • Settle Down? Down Where?
    • What Lights You Up?
    • Saying Yes When Your Mind Says No
    • Independence From What?
    • Letting Ourselves Off the Hook
    • Letting Go of Assumptions
    • Is Kindness Allowed?
    • How to Throw a Wrench in the Works
    • Happiness
    • Daring to be Lighthearted
    • What Happens When You See Things Differently
    • Find Delight in Everyday Life
    • Are You Saying What Needs to Be Said
    • Is Your Life in Alignment
    • Are You Trapped by Your Past
    • Can You Love Your Life
    • The Hallmark of Creativity
    • Out Of Ideas?
    • Waking Up to a New World
    • Are You a Possibilitarian?
    • Want to Love Your Life?
    • Is Creativity Necessary
    • What's Stopping You?
    • An Unexpected Discovery
    • Free Your Mind
    • Is Your Creative Genius Hiding
    • Empty Headed or Clear Minded?
    • Is Stress Really Necessary?
    • Will Creativity Improve Your Life?
    • Is Creativity In Your Future?
    • Replace Fear With Love
    • How to Get Out of Your Own Way
    • Just Take A Moment
    • You Don't Have To - You Get To
    • The Good News About Being Stuck
    • Interested in Inner Freedom?
    • Are You a Hoarder?
    • What Remains
    • Co-vid 19 Free Pass to the Roller Coaster
    • Grace Under Pressure
    • Now is the Time To Notice
    • Hanging With the Wrong Crowd
    • Make Your Life Simpler
    • What Could Be Different For You
    • Everything is a Miracle
    • Do You Have A Negativity Bias
    • Are You Really Seeing Or Just Assuming?
    • Happiness and Resilience
    • Wherever You Go, There You Are
    • Is Stress Making You Sick?
    • What I Wish My Humans Knew
    • Looking Backwards
    • Daring to Change Course
    • Lost in Thought or Taking Action?
    • Still Can't Focus?
    • Do Your Thoughts Get Dark and Gloomy?
    • Can't Focus?
    • An Instant Formula for New Ideas
    • Talk Yourself Out of Another Great Idea?
    • Is Your Busyness Keeping You From Getting Things Done?
    • What's that Feeling In the Pit of My Stomach?
    • How Cool is This?
    • How to Make Your New Year Happier
    • Why Be Open To Life?
    • Simple Ways to Transform Your Life
    • Get Clarity and Confidence
    • Are You Driven by Fear or Love?
    • The Number One Way to Keep Your Vision Alive and Well
    • Why Stop Trying to Figure it Out?
    • What Are You Trying to Prove?
    • Do Your Goals Reflect Your Hearts Desire
    • Why My Cat is My Spiritual Teacher
    • Surviving the Holidays
    • 3 Convincing Reasons
    • 3 Secrets to Enjoying the Holidays
    • 5 Quick Steps to Get Your Mojo Back
    • 3 Ways to Keep Your Energy High
    • 5 Reasons to Do Good
    • Pain Relief for the Soul
    • Tired of Living by the Rules? Go Rogue!
    • What? You've Made a Mess? Excellent!
    • Why You Need to Be Inspired Now
    • Change Your Life in Just 48 Hours?
    • The Cure For Mental Overload
    • 5 Infallible Ways to Stay Inspired
  • Newsletter

Still Can't Focus?

5/20/2019

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In a recent blog about focus, I reflected on how most of us search for a technique or best practice when we find ourselves unfocused. Happily, that’s no longer necessary when we stop believing whatever thoughts keep us unfocused, because we become receptive to new ideas that are just waiting for a little wiggle room in our minds.

In the past couple weeks I’ve noticed (both in myself and in my clients) a common subset of overthinking that can make it particularly hard to focus. It’s so compelling when we believe it that we just can’t give ourselves permission to keep our attention on the work at hand.

When we believe we have to step in and manage or control the behaviors of other people, it’s almost impossible to focus on what we need or want to do. If you’re a parent, a business owner or part of a team, I’d guess that with certain people you’ve convinced yourself that in order to have something done right (or even done at all), you have to either spend precious time monitoring their progress or doing it yourself, leaving you with less time for what you need to do. There’s a real fear beneath this kind of thinking, convincing us that our lives will definitely suffer unless we step in and exert some degree of control in what others are doing.  Who hasn’t often started out by working on their own but found themselves constantly interrupting their own flow in order to make sure “other people” are doing what they’re supposed to?

Research suggests that it takes between 15 and 23 minutes to get back on track once we get interrupted. So, if you have one hour to spend on an important project, with just two interruptions your productivity is reduced by at least half. Often more.

I’ve met very few people who don’t think they could benefit from more time in their day. But it’s not the amount of time we have allotted to us, it’s how we relate to time. And when we’re caught up in thinking that insists we focus on monitoring others’ behaviors at our own expense, we lose the very thing we’re hoping to gain.

All sorts of ideas can come to you once you become aware your behavior is being determined by your own thoughts and not the actions (or inaction) of other people. You might realize how to work in a simpler, more streamlined way. Or you may see ways you could set things up so you don’t have to stop what you’re doing to check on others. 

When we realize that the quality of our lives is determined by the thoughts we think, we can then see that we don’t have to think - or believe - the thoughts that stop us just because they've come into our minds. Looking beyond those limiting thoughts, we automatically open ourselves to ideas that are much more effective, satisfying, productive and fun. And as my mentor Michael Neill is fond of saying, noticing changes everything. ​ Why not see for yourself?

I'll be sharing more thoughts about this pesky problem of lack of focus in a free zoom call Wednesday, May 22, 2019 at 12:30pm Eastern. Join me HERE.
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