Gayle HI was doing my somewhat daily meditation this morning. I’m pretty good five of seven days of the week – my weekend meditations are still coming in the form of sleeping late.
And all of a sudden the topic for this newsletter became crystal clear.
Focus.
Each day, Deepak Chopra (and Oprah, but admittedly, I skip through her intro to get to Deepak more quickly) provides us with a centering though.
And for those of you familiar with Deepak Chopra, you know it only takes a few centering words from him for your entire life to have meaning.
This morning the centering thought for our meditation was, “I am focused upon what I want.”
I am focused upon what I want.
Yeah, all of a sudden, you have this razor edge, laser beam focus on what you are reading, right? Deepak works that fast.
I got thinking about the idea of focus, and the more I focused on what I wanted, with razor edge laser beam focus, the closer, easier, more clear it all became.
But focus is not easy in this crazy world of ours! Technology, busy lives, overscheduled calendars, fast paced environments – life becomes a series of actions done simultaneously to simply keep us afloat.
So how do we shine the spotlight solely on what we want so as to increase our chances of attaining our desires?
I’d like to offer up some ideas.
First, decide what you want. Your want can be as simple as a new item of clothing/electronics/sports equipment. Your want can be more life changing such as eating better/exercising more/sleeping longer/making more money/having more time away from work. Or, your want could be a complete moon shot like peace on earth/a day without the kids arguing/a week vacation by yourself on a beach.
Start small or aim for the stars, but find something you want in (or out) of your life. Do you have a bucket list? That would be a great place to start!
Second, focus. Focus here does not mean dreaming about what you want. We are using the word focus as an action verb. Focus. Follow the following steps:
- Write down what you want as a quantifiable, achievable goal.
- Identify what you need to make this goal a reality. Time, space, money, a plan, a sponsor, support.
- Identify how much of what you need to make this goal a reality.
Third, create a focus routine. I usually recommend setting aside a few hours every week to focus on the ‘want plan’, but this varies by want and by your own use of time. If focus means doing something small every day toward your goal (this might work well if you are trying to eat healthier for example), do that. If focus means scheduling time in your calendar a couple of times a week (which might work well if aiming toward an exercise goal), do that. A few hours once a week would work well for a career advancement plan, personal development, a new job, or a well deserved vacation.
The point is to focus. How long and what interval levels are secondary to committing to some time at regular intervals.
I remember when I ran my first (and only) marathon. Running a marathon was on my bucket list. Why? Certainly not because I enjoyed running! No, what I wanted was a feeling of accomplishment doing something only approximately one percent of our population has accomplished. I wanted to raise my hands over my head (hopefully while still moving) while crossing the finish line.
That’s what I wanted.
And focus was the only thing that was going to get me over that finish line.
Focus on my training schedule. Focus on what I ate. Focus on my physical development. Focus on my mental development. Time to train. Money for my training support. Sleep for recovery. Food for fuel.
There was a lot to focus on!
But a clear want supported by regular focus intervals got me there. To the finish line. Standing upright. With my hands over my head in joy (and exhaustion).
You can have, be, do anything you want. You just need to do one small thing.
Focus.
If You Do Nothing Else…
What do you want? Write it down.
That’s a great start….
Gayle H
