Today we’ll cover how knowing the reason for your goal, or your ‘why’ is absolutely CRUCIAL to you staying focused. We have an awesome exercise to help you embrace this reality as your own. I’ll also share a few precious tid bits on how to overcome obstacles that can tend to distract you from what you need to do in order to hit your goal.
For years perhaps you’ve set goals you believed you were excited about. You determined you were going to do it this time. You left a seminar, finished a book or program and said, “That’s it!!! I’m ready!! This time I WILL achieve my goal! I really want it!! I’m going to do it!” Sure enough, though, the Motivation Assassinator of Lack of Focus struck and you looked up one day only to discover you weren’t achieving the goal—actually you weren’t even working on it any longer! I can tell you- this has certainly happened to me. Once I acknowledged my powerful ‘why’ things began to happen and haven’t stopped happening! I’m seeing my goal become reality! What if I told you that it is possible to have such a burning, powerful ‘why’ that your goal not only stays in the front of your mind at all times, but is also buried in your heart constantly too!
Imagine a 20 ft. 2×4. You know, the piece of wood used in constructing a home. If you lay that 2×4 on the floor directly in front of you, do you believe you could walk across it? It’s 4 inches wide, so I’m sure you might walk heel to toe, but most people say, “Of course I could do that!” Ok, so you believe you could do that. Now, what if we place a cement block under each end so it’s sitting approximately 12 inches off the ground. Do you believe you could still do it? Again, most say, “Yes, I did it already. I could do it again.” Great!! Sure you could! Ok, so what if we suspend the board between 2, 30 story buildings. Do you believe you could walk across it now? Most times people just look at me with a blank stare, fearful even. This is different. I don’t know if I believe it or not, actually I probably don’t. Fair enough. Now imagine this. Your standing on top of one of the thirty story buildings and the other building is on fire. And standing on the roof of the other building is the person you love most in this world. It may be your baby (even if your baby is 30 years old). It might be a parent, spouse, sibling, best friend, whomever. But whoever it is, the flames are going to consume them. Can you get across the board now? The answer always comes back a resounding, “You better believe it!’ I’ll crawl, hang or dangle, but I’ll get there!”
Well, gang, you just came up with one seriously powerful ‘why’. I call this the Burning Baby question. You got across the board to the other building because the one you loved most, the biggest why you could imagine was about to burn! So, with regard to your goal— what’s your ‘burning baby’? You need one if the goal is to be continually focused on. To weigh a certain weight or look a certain way is but a vanity goal. There is nothing wrong with a vanity goal; it’s just going to provide a temporary result. Burning baby goals produce permanent results because they matter so much to you. What’s your burning baby with regard to the goal you have? This will be the key factor in you staying focused on your goal and thereby achieving it.
Let’s talk every day distractions like email, voice mail, interruptions and TV. Set a specific time, two or three a day if necessary, to check your email and voice mail. Do NOT check it all the time or have it sitting on your task bar open. These things are seductive and their goal is to attack our focus. And they always achieve their goal! Schedule meetings and/or appointments with yourself and don’t permit interruptions. Trust me, if the building is crashing down around you, someone will let you know. Otherwise, remember your ‘burning baby’ and don’t let interruptions occur. Set an hour or so for a program you like to watch, and then call it quits for the night. Be sure the program is sending a positive message to your brain, not a negative one. Your focus gets foggy and time gets robbed (a serious focus stealer) when you spend too much time putting negative stuff into your mind. Remember, we become what we think about. And the more you put negative into your mind, the tougher it is to focus on your goal naturally. And there’s the secret. To allow focus to become a natural thing for you here is one last tip. Figure out through journaling what distracts you. It might be music, turn it off. It might be phones ringing elsewhere in the building, close the door. It might be talking too long in a meeting, set an agenda and stick to it, save the other information for another time.
Want to see your motivation maintained this time and the goal achieved? Be healthy selfish with your focus. It’s the vital factor to you finally hitting that goal permanently.