I’m going in a different direction this week than my blog calendar had originally dictated.  That is one of the gifts of being my own boss:  I get to call the shots.  What I want to dish about today is one of my favorite topics of all time: FOCUS.

Women breadwinners traditionally have this in spades.  We know how to focus.  We know how to dive in, dig in, and get the job done… for MOST things.  But what about the areas of life where we don’t put too much of our focus?

What areas of life are you not focusing on?

What is your lack of focus in that area costing you?

Multi-tasking is a myth.  Human beings do not multi-task.  Even if you feel like you’re working on ten different things at once, you’re not.  You might be giving 10 seconds of focus to one thing and 30 seconds of focus to another and 45 seconds of focus to another but you are not multi-tasking.  You’re simply dividing your WHOLE mind in PRESENT action among a number of different things.

But what if all of that focus in one area is costing you the joy, peace, and success you want in another?

How do you switch gears and use your focus to concentrate your power in another area of life?

Here are 3 simple steps you can take:

1. Approach every task with your WHOLE mind.  In other words, be completely where you are when you’re doing what you do.  If it’s family time, be 100% in family time.  If you’re at work, be 100% at work.  This is difficult in a day and age where we’ve electronically chained ourselves to our jobs and use that as the excuse for why we’re not able to focus on our families.  Throw the excuses out and give your all to each thing when it’s on your schedule.  Dividing your mind or your time between two places is no fun.  Be here now…
2. Put all of your energy into whatever it is you’re focused on.  A lot of us come to different tasks with different levels of energy.  We half-ass our way through things.  When I was a professor, I’d teach business students about Adam’s Equity Theory.  Part of Adam’s Equity theory says that we look at our work situation and we consider how much we’re being rewarded… and then we alter our level of input or performance to make it equivalent to the amount of reward we’re receiving.  In other words, if I feel like I’m being paid half as much as I’m worth for a project, I might give half as much of my energy to it because I feel I’m being mistreated.  That kind of skewed perception of equity is a sure fire way to fail.  Why?  Because when you don’t give ALL of yourself to ALL you do, the only person you cheat is you.  Make your investment of your energy into your life YOUR BUSINESS.  It’s not about what anyone else is going to give you.  It’s about you enjoying every second of your life, whether it’s at work or at home.
3. Focus on resourcefulness, not resources.  If you’re resourceful, the resources will come.  I used to doubt this idea.  But, as I started to see how in jams and during major obstacles, I was able to transform pressure into progress, it dawned on me that this concept (which I originally heard Tony Robbins talk about) is 100% true.  If you can get out of fear, worry and doubt and into a place of saying “Ok, I’m doing this now how can I get it done?”, you’ll get resourceful, you’ll stay the course, and you’ll get the job done.  See your journey of focus as a steady climb and focus on the next 3 steps.  Nothing more.
4. See it as done.  Visualizing the result, thinking from the end, believing you can choose what you focus on, all of these things are key to concentrating your power.  Without your belief in yourself, you have nothing.  If you want to put more focus in a given area of your life, you have to believe that you have the ability to.  Once you do, you will.

So… how will you put these 4 steps into practice?  What area of your life do you want to now focus on?

Leave your comments below.  I’m listening…