[New Year, New You] Day 11: Ditch The Distractions to Reach Your Dreams
So we’re tipping over to the second half of our 21-Day New Year, New You Challenge and if you’re still here, then hat’s off to you! Thank you for your time and attention and persistence in sticking to it. I know this is going to pay off for you. No matter how sloppy and sleepy my messages may have been, the fact that every day for the last eleven days you’ve been checking in and committing to yourself still makes you more powerful than if you’d allowed yourself to get sucked down another Facebook rabbit hole, or Netflix binge!
Today we’re talking about “distractions” and how to ditch them once and for all. We’ve been talking a lot about the importance of being present and discussed why where you put your attention will determine everything about the results you get in life. So how do we handle the distractions that come up and seem to take so much of our time and attention off the track of the better life we’re busily trying to create for ourselves?
With three teenagers and one child with autism in our house, I consider myself almost an expert at figuring out what it takes to eliminate distractions, crank up productivity and feel super-charged about your progress and focus in life. I had to learn things the long and hard way!! Hopefully a few ideas in today’s blog article and podcast can help spare you a lot of wasted minutes, days, weeks and even years of unnecessary distraction!
One of the Best Investments You Can Make
For many, many years I was a single, self-employed, homeschooling mom. And over the last 10-12 years I’ve been busy raising a family while juggling business, I had one powerful tool I used which made me conquer some pretty huge obstacles and make life work.
Everyone’s got the same number of hours in a day, but not everyone uses those hours in the same way. A key to making yourself competent and making the most out of your time and your life is to knock off distractions–to make yourself more effective, focused, efficient and productive.
The biggest way I did that was by investing in personal study–in books and courses and time spent studying them to make me more able to work with focus and get it all in. If you listened to the Day 8 podcast the other day, it’s a perfect example of how I try to maximize my time and efficiency. We were stuck in traffic and I pulled out my podcast gear and recorded it in traffic.
If you’ve established your goals and objectives for the coming year, and you’ve got the courage to face your obstacles, then by listening to these podcasts over the last eleven days and even trying just a little bit to apply the information in them, you’ve already made yourself a little more powerful, a little more aware, and a little more focused and committed.
Changing You Is the Easiest Thing You Can Do
Think of how your productivity and focus would improve if you could handle something like indecision? What if the time lost questioning yourself, doubting your decisions and second guessing things after you’ve already tried to decide were to just disappear and no longer be cramping your style?
By investing in yourself you build more certainty–you get sharper and more decisive about the things you really want and you get braver about asking for them! After that, the only thing left to do is bravely practice communicating these things to others and doing what’s necessary to take steps in the right direction.
Sometimes investing in myself was scary. Even when I didn’t feel I had time or money, I would go anyway and the time and money would have sorted themselves out. I had a new perspective–a great idea, a more positive outlook on life and I felt more alive.
That “aliveness” was the thing that built my business and allowed me to create the life I have now. It was never time or money, but ME and my willingness to dream and do the things I most wanted with more and more courage!
When you’re getting things done and moving forward on projects that are important to you, you’re going to feel confident, empowered and optimistic about life. When you organize your time and tasks effectively you can accomplish in 10 minutes what most people will take hours to get done!
Indecision, dispersion, distraction and “busyness” are huge obstacles to productivity. The clearer you become on who you are and where you want to go in life, the faster you start to get there and the less you are willing to accept being distracted, dispersed and indecisive.
Go ahead and dive in to the podcast to accompany this lesson and let me know what distractions you’re most committed to getting off your path and out of your life so you can have more energy, time and attention to direct toward your dreams!
Go get ’em, Tiger!
Love,
Tera