5 Steps for Focus

I recently had an in depth conversation with someone regarding meal planning. I realized how much easier it is for me now. Me. The “unnatural planner” finds planning meals a breeze.

When it comes to other areas of planning, put on the brakes! It feels overwhelming and is not second nature to me. Calendars, planners, schedules make me start to sweat. I recognize how many areas of my life would be less stressful if I approached them like I do meal planning.

Then I remembered. This is my year. My year to focus .

How do you do it? How do you take an area of your life and bring it into focus ?

1. Identify your Main Stress : What area of your life do you feel most frazzled? Is it meal planning, coupon clipping, homeschooling, laundry? There are times when it all feels like too much. Though typically we have 1 or 2 main areas that send us over the insanity brink. This is the area that needs to be your prioritized focus.

2. Focus on the Weak Link: Now that you have your area of focus (ie. your main area of stress), figure out where you break down the most. If your area of focus is laundry, what part of the task are you “weakest” at? Sorting, folding, putting it away?

3. Brainstorm: Since you have your focus narrowed, you can brainstorm ways to strengthen the weak link. Is putting away your laundry your weak link? Consider having each member of the family put their own away. If you are already doing that, brainstorm ways to implement consequences of clean laundry unattended.

4. Be realistic: Nothing will force you to quit quicker than setting unrealistic goals. Small steps towards goals are much better than giant leaps. Rarely does the giant leap stick. If you are always behind in laundry, do not make the goal to be consistently “caught up”. Instead, start by making the realistic goal to do 1 load per day. This is where you start.

5. Mastery is Key: This is where we often lose in the game of improving our area of focus. Do not implement any new goals to your area of focus until you have mastered your revised system. Mastery leads towards consistency. When we have too many new implementations in place, we can not focus enough on any of them. We may improve, but we are not consistent.

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Even with utilizing these 5 steps, we will not always be perfect in improving our focus. Remember:

…I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. Philippians 3:13b

What do you want to bring into focus?

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Linking to Women Living Well