8 Calls to Action to Increase Your Focus TODAY

August 18, 2014 by Katie

New York Times Bestselling author of Focus, Daniel Goleman, breaks focus down into 3 categories: inner, other, and outer. Inner focus is our level of self-awareness. Meaning, inner focus is our attention toward values, feelings, and beliefs toward ourselves. This level of focus is an essential building block to self-confidence, abilities, and getting things done. Other focus is our empathy and understanding of the perceptions of others, and what we can do to help them be their best. The outer focus, deals simply with how we recognized outer things that shape our reality or perhaps, our strategy to shaping our reality. You’re in the driver seat as to how far, long, or effective your focus journey will take, continue, or end.

Look at these eight strategy steps as refueling stations to your focus journey.

1. Create your personal setting, i.e. home office, work office, and the ambience of your life. You control your setting, not your setting controlling you.
2. Mindfulness thoughts to remind you to eliminate distractions. Practice being in the moment, but not frazzled by a disruption. Train your mind, attitude, and emotions to be present and to identify what is necessary for you to maintain your focus, and what is a distraction. Stop that distraction. Regain your focus.
3. Exercise your mind. Practice mindfulness activities for your brain to aid you in being the present moment. Meditation is an excellent exercise to aid in focus, clarity, and many other things. If meditation is new for you, research some amazing tutorials via Spirit Junkie or perhaps, check out the free Meditation App, Headspace.
4. Willpower nutrition. Create and sustain willpower through minimizing stress and building relaxing platforms that promote focus and follow-through. Daniel Goleman also provides an excellent guide to help you relax and minimize stress.
5. What you consume matters. Plan and eat healthy meals that give you the energy and nourishment your body and mind needs. Moderation of caffeine and carbs will also aid in preventing bursts of energy followed by dreaded energy crashes.
6. Get feedback from an expert, such as a mentor, professional coach, or management professional that can aid you in identifying areas of improvement to strengthen your focus abilities.
7. Make the time to work on growing and understanding your inner, other, and outer focus influences of your life, work, and organization. Doing so will aid you in conducting more effective situational analyzes that shape strategy. Personal and professional strategy requires focus.
8. Sleep. Seriously, getting a good night’s rest is a dying necessity that takes away essential rest, recovery, and energy for the next day. If you struggle with falling asleep because your mind is running a hundred miles an hour, put on some relaxing music or download the Sleep Pillow app.

Make the best of your focus journey by not sacrificing one area of focus to another. Meaning, your inner focus is essential, but don’t get hung-up on only your perspective and neglect outer and other focus. Life requires alignment, understanding, and action. Managing that alignment through balanced focus is paramount to achieving and sustaining focus. Take time to get to know your inner focus, focus influences of others, and outside focus that can impact your internal personal and professional world. Doing so helps you to not only focus, but to shape strategy that is more productive, meaningful, and relevant to you, your clients, family, friends, colleagues, and Universe. Today is your day.

Good Reads…

Goleman, D. (2014). 7 Ways to Sharpen Your Focus. The Huffington Post. Retrieved http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-goleman/7-ways-to-sharpen-your-fo_b_4282640.html,

Schawbel, D. (2014). Daniel Goleman: Why Professionals Need Focus. Forbes. Retrieved: http://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2013/10/08/daniel-goleman-why-professionals-need-focus/.

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by Katie Doseck, Ph.D.

Chief Visionary | Viral Solutions LLC

Filed Under: Analytics Tagged With: katie doseck, strategy, vision