Three Levels of Focus

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Hi, Coach Kris here. Wanted to leave some tips today about FOCUS. In fact, I'm gonna give you three tips for three levels of focus, and what's really funny about this is it came from my preschool class when I was teaching martial arts. I know that sounds ridiculous, but bear with me because what's simple is true (I think Jewel taught me that), and what applies when we're little still applies when we're big sometimes.

So our three levels of focus at any age:

1. you want to focus your eyes.

2. You want to focus your mind.

3. You want to focus your body.

Ok. Now, I'm not talking about "stand still" with you guys like I am with little kids, but it still goes all the way from your eyes to your mind to your body.

Now there's a lot of ways that this can apply. One thing you can think of is that what you're looking at you need to process. So you see it, you process it through your mind, and then you internalize it in your body, and you are willing to take action and DO something about it. That's a general way of looking at it. I'm going to break all of that down.

So let's talk about "focus your eyes."

We've all heard the phrase "keep your eyes on the prize." That can be the difference between having a great day and having a lousy day. Here's an example:

Last week, I had five really big wins in my business. A couple of firsts for me, a couple of amazing opportunities to collaborate that I did not see coming... I just had some really great growth, and really a lot of productivity.

But when Friday evening rolled around, at about 5 o'clock, I was exhausted. I was depressed. And I was not happy about the productivity of the week. Because in addition to those great things, I also had these several challenges, annoyances, technology problems, that I really really was unhappy about. And because I took my eyes and I focused over here completely, I forgot temporarily about all of the great things that happened during the week. So it wasn't until I was able to shift my focus back to what went well that I was able to recognize "wow! that was a good week. Yep, it had its challenges. Yep, I was a little tired at the end of the week." So yes there are things I can improve on, but overall, it was a good week.

Where we keep our focus, where we shift our eyes, what we're looking at, those things that we focus on are going to inform how we feel about the things we're doing. And we all know that how we feel about something informs what kind of action we take. So that's number one. Level one: Focus your Eyes. Look at the things that are going well, at least as much as, if not more than, the things that are causing problems. They need to get corrected, but they can't overtake everything else.

Number 2: focus your mind.

I have ADD, so this one is a bit challenging for me. I am a firm believer that yes, I can multi-task, even though every neuroscientist I have ever encountered has told me it's been proven that we can't. Okay. We can't multi-task, but we can switch from one task to another pretty quickly, and some brains are better at doing that than others.

What's challenging for all of us is there is a limited bandwidth, and it's been two years of living through a pandemic, and more and more I'm coming across people who are saying to me, "I am so tired. I just can't get as much done as I used to get done. I'm forgetting things. I'm starting something and then halfway through not remembering how to finish it." Everybody is feeling the wear and tear of this. And it's a lot. And the reason that we're feeling it is that it's non-stop background noise. That's not an excuse. It's just the truth. There is non-stop background noise, and there are things that every single one of us has to take into consideration every day because we're living through a pandemic.

For some people, it's a lot more stressful than others. If you're a doctor or a nurse and you are on the frontlines dealing with people, you've got all this emotional stress and all this physical fatigue and so many things that the rest of us don't have to deal with.

If you're a parent and you have children in school right now, my guess is you're getting somewhere between one and a dozen emails a day trying to tell you what's going on and whether or not someone in class or on campus or across the street at the park had COVID and may or may not have come in contact with your kid. It's constantly changing what the rules are, and in an effort to give you enough information there is just information overload.

And if you're not in one of those two highly stressful categories already, you still have to deal with what's happening in the world around you. We're in a surge; you have to be more careful. We're not in a surge; we get to relax. Do I have to wear a mask? Did I BRING my mask? Is it the right kind of mask? 

It's a lot. And that noise is always there. And then on top of that, you take all the other noise that happens in our lives: the kids who need this, and the spouse that needs that, and the boss that needs this, and the client that needs that, and oh, yeah! I thought I wanted to read that book but ... it's just noisy.

And so we need to have a way that we can focus our minds. Where we can quiet down that noise, ... we can take a breath, ... and we can hear the silence, ... and the birds.

We want to be able to have those moments of space so that we can focus, and we have an opportunity to be creative.

What I've noticed in the last several weeks is when I go to meditate, my brain gets inspired. It turns on, and it's all this great... fantastic ... I need to write that stuff down.

It's not a great meditation, but what it made me realize after it happened a few times, was that I need two things: I don't just need meditation, but I also need time to be creative. So what I've started doing is when I'm getting ready to meditate, I grab a pen and a piece of paper, and I write down... I let myself get still and quiet enough to let those thoughts bubble up... and I start writing down the great ideas that used to bother me during my meditation because they're not a bother, they're fantastic. Right? So I write them down. I give myself some creative time. Don't have to do anything with them, but I gotta get them out.

And then... I can sit and I can meditate, and I can let everything get quiet.

Because we need that space. You're not gonna be able to focus on a single thought when it's just a thousand thoughts out loud in your head. And I hear clients tell me all the time, "I don't meditate well because as soon as I get quiet, everything gets noisy." That's fine. That's your brain saying, "Thank you for the pause and the opportunity to be heard." So let it be heard. Get all of that out. And then take your time, even if it's only a minute, to just get still and get quiet and get really centered, and get into your meditation. Because that's going to help you, when you're ready to actually take action, keep all that crazy noise a little bit quieter.

So we've got Focus our Eyes. Focus our Minds.

Our last one is Focus your body.

What am I talking about? I'm not talking about exercise, although that's incredibly important. I'm not talking about stillness, although that's also incredibly important. What I'm talking about with focusing your body is... what actions are you taking?

Some of us are super good at being busy, and not so good at being productive. Right? Some of us are really good at being productive, but then at the end of the day, we're like "why are these things not getting done that needed to really get done?" because we're being productive but not necessarily on the right thing. So when we've gone through, you know, focus your mind,  you've gotten your ideas out. You've gotten some of the noise to quiet down. Hopefully, you also get a chance to prioritize. Being willing and able to act on those prioritizations is also key, and that's what I mean by focus your body.

I am the queen of, and I will admit it, making lots of plans and then going and doing exactly what I feel like and not following the plan during the day. It feels good at the moment, but at the end of the day, it's really stressful because the things that needed to get done didn't get done. So for me what's really helpful is every morning when I do my planning I write out my top three priorities. During the day when I actually remember to go back and look at my plan, the top three priorities show up. Anything that comes in its way, I have to measure it against "oh this new thing came up. Is it more important than my top three things?"

Well, maybe I've already gotten two of them done. Can I do this one? No, it's not as important as this last priority. I'll get this done and then put the new thing in, or I'll put it off for another day. It's really really important that the things we're doing are the best right thing, and for me the test is:

• Is this one thing going to move me closer to my goal?

• Is this one thing gonna be a big win for me?

• Is this something that someone else can do? (If you are fortunate enough to have a team that you can delegate to)

Making sure we're doing the right thing, our focused productivity, helps us get more done in less time.

So that's it. That's my three tips for three levels of focus: Focus your eyes. Focus your mind. and Focus your body. Just like we tell the little kids. It's good for them. It's good for us. The meaning changes as we get older, but it's still the nice, same simple formula.

That's all for now. I'll see you next time. Have a fantastic, super-productive, high-performance week.