How to stay focused IN your goals and not just on your goals sounds a little weird at first but let me explain. Your goals have to live in you not on you. If you can picture your desires as a coat or t-shirt then you have to change that outlook.
A coat or shirt can be taken off and in most cases you want to take it off for one reason or another. You put on a jacket when its cold or rainy and take it off when the weather breaks (I love you summer, I can smell the charcoal and hear sizzling).
With a t-shirt once it gets dirty you have to wash it. Well you should wash it. Your choice. I prefer the smell of Arm and Hammer as opposed to sweaty crack (I’ll let that sink in a little bit). These things are easily disposed of or forgotten for a season.
When your goal is IN you this is like your heart or blood flow. You can feel it pumping inside of you everyday, you may not even see it but you know what it looks like, it’s a life force, a piece of you that cannot be removed or you could possibly die.
This sounds intense but it is doable.
PROGRAM YOUR MIND
In order to get something to come out, you have to put something in. Right? If you want sound to come out of your TV, you have to plug it in. Or if you want to have energy, you have to eat.
The same goes for your goals. It’s all about input and re-programming your mind to focus on the goal you need to knock out.
I like the idea of placing little notes and reminders for yourself all over the place. I mean if you want to earn an extra hundred dollars in a month, begin to program your mind to look for it. You do this by placing post its, with your goal written on it (maybe it will read “$100 by 2/28), near your bed so it’s the last thing you see at night.
Maybe even put one by the door or on the door so you see it before you leave the house. Have another reminder set in your phone at specific times, so it can vibrate and remind you of your ultimate goal even while you work.
These serve as constant reminders until your brain finally says “okay boss, I got it, let’s do it, I am looking for it, everywhere, all the time.” The idea is to build it into your subconscious.
LOSE THE DISTRACTIONS
So you have now programmed your goal into your mind but the outside circumstances are still not changing. These can be categorized as tough times. For example, it feels like every time I have something exciting to share with you all I have some crazy thing that pops up.
Like when my mom suddenly needed to get a pacemaker or how emergency issues at work will pop up that require me to work extra hours.
Or even my daughter deciding at the same exact time I decide to write that she wants to discuss world problems: “Daddy why do some people not have shoes?”
Unfortunately these are distractions that will easily derail your focus, even when the goal has become ingrained. Why? Because they will always appear suddenly or appear to be an emergency.
If the same “emergencies” are continually showing up, they probably are false alarms. Or “emergen-me’s,” false emergencies that emerge inside of your mind due to how someone else perceives them.
People are tricky man. They will act like your attention is vital to handle something, to persuade you.
You have to find ways to limit these people in your life, even the kids, even the girlfriend, boyfriend, spouse, whatever. I’m not saying ignore them completely, but carve out time just for you to work towards your goal. Just you and your goal, no one else unless they are apart of completing it.
In other words you are focusing your attention on a single task. I have to hide and write in another room with a closed door for a couple of hours or even write at 4am just to keep my household from distracting me. They do not do it on purpose, for the most part but I know that they can derail me.
Singular Focus in spurts my friends.
I would even go as far as saying, try to work on your ultimate objective daily if possible. If you do it daily then you are constantly working at it and can work in smaller chunks of time. This allows you to still have time for people and things that fight for our attention.