The art of focus.

Five [5] tips to keep your eyes on the prize!

How many of us made a concrete decision to eat healthy, have positive self-talk, exercise more or quit something? [My hands are up.]  Then we come to a fork in the road and our simple decision get's challenged, we adjust our choices to include an amendment.

EX: I will eat clean in the New Year! Then something happens so we adjust.

EX: I will eat clean in the New Year on weekday's! Again, we're challenged and we make another adaptation.

EX: I will eat clean in the New Year on weekday's but only Monday and Wednesday.

“Focus is a muscle that is created through the flexing of choices. Every decision has the ability to impoverish or prosper you, in mind, body & soul.”

— Ho'omalamalama

Here's where the fun begins, let's dive into the, "5 tips to keep your eyes on the prize."

STOP! Breathe, and observe. Chances are that you already know what is getting in the way of your success. 

Is it a person, place, thing or any other noun? 

Do you have control over this particular situation?

Is this situation in control over you?

Now grab your trusty journal, I use my Make Mahalo planner, and write down,

"WHY"

that person, place or thing is distracting you.

Why are they or it allowed to distract you? For me it was my iPhone, all those push notifications, which I allowed to distract me. Children and spouse fall into this category sometimes.

There are three categories that every distraction will fall into.

1. Life threatening. This defines itself and I'm pretty sure that you won't need an example.

2. Avoidance. [One of my evils.] When you do everything except what you should be doing.

3. Out of your control. Not life threatening but it has put a hurdle in your smooth path. What other's do to you.

Counter all the negativity.

Write a list of all the things that are important to you. What get's you up in the morning?

Perhaps you feel compelled or called to complete a certain task. What is it?

Maybe you want to complete a task that someone else started but didn't get to finish.

For every "WHAT" you wrote on #4 write a "WHY. " Here lies the heart of your motivation. If you lack inspiration or feel shadowed by discouragement, then this step is extremely important.

I wrote a previous blogpost called, "How strong is your WHY?"

I'm doing a whole new series about FOCUS on my Instagram page. Using images that I've take to inspire the subconscious mind to persevere. If you're ready to surround your life with awesome intention and focus join here.  

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READY TO FOCUS? HERE ARE THE BENEFITS

• Success

• Health

• Goals Reached

• Joy of Completion

• New Heights

• Career Improvement

• Business Growth

• And many more...

TIME TO INFLUENCE OTHERS

The best way to make sure that you've learned something is to go out and start teaching it to others. Share the 5-Tips with three other friends. Better yet, do the writing exercises with them. I've included a link below that you can click and it will send a message to your friends on twitter.

Tweet: Walk with me as I walk in beauty. Join the newsletter & get exclusive content. #WholelisticFit

Tell me about your experience with the 5-Tips, Comment below. 

How to stick to your plan. PART 1

We live in a world of mass distractions. Some of them become part of a crazy cycle based on an un-finished TO-DO list.

Imagine waking up in the morning and you have a clear picture of what has to be done. Than life happens... it's the evening and you find yourself laying on the pillow wondering, "Where did the time go?" By the way, did you complete that single task? No, because something got in the way. Day after day and night after night we feel the pressure of INCOMPLETION. 

Don't worry you're not alone. We live in a push-notification era. Our unlimited data lifestyle bombards us with so many distractions. We crave success but we really need is the ability to focus.

Forget about planning for a minute and think about your ability to focus on your goals. How often do you have to stop what you're doing to help someone else? Have you ever had to put your work on-hold because of a text you received? Do you find yourself locked into FaceBook trying to respond to people?

Well you my friend are dealing with distractions. Keep reading, there's hope.

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The theme: HOW TO STICK TO YOUR PLAN 

I realized that it has nothing to do with planning but everything to do with what's going on around us. Our environment is why we fail to succeed at anything. It's like Resolutions. The idea of making a Resolution isn't wrong but it often gets a bad rep. We surround a Resolution with so much unfair expectation. I personally like resolutions but I keep mine pretty simple. For instance: Read positive words. Easily done because everyone I follow on Instagram [Follow Here] comes from a positive background. I see positive post by default. Now back to you, I have a few positive things you can do called STICK TO YOUR PLAN [STYP] SECRETS to share along with a few tips that you can use when scheduling.

STYP SECRET #1

Learn your habits. Track what you do. 

STYP SECRET #2

Break down your plans into tiny task.

STYP SECRET #3

Learn to make adjustments as you flow.

Habits - Habits are what we do when we're not paying attention to ourselves. It's in our nature and part of our everyday choices. You don't have to think about it because it happens. For instance if I wanted to stop eating dairy I should look at the habit that I've formed around eating dairy. Perhaps I always walk down the ice cream isle, that's a habit, and grab a container as I shop. If you're failing at a particular part of your plan look at your habits. I suggest using a Habit-Tracker. It's just a way to mark your activities as they happen.    

Tiny Task - It's a psychological thing. We have to trick our minds into accepting the task and not sabotaging our efforts. For example: I plan to practice yoga at 6am three times per week but I can't seem to follow through. I did stick to my first day but the second and third session didn't happen. WHY? Because I stayed up late thinking I could manage it but when my alarm sounded I clicked the 'sleep' button for five more minutes. Realizing later that I over slept and decided to roll over and enjoy the extended nap. After all I'll get to it tomorrow... but the same scenario happens and I eventually give up the plan. *What I should have done is set up small task such as plan to attend one 6am session per week for a month then add a second next month and so on. Eventually reaching my goal, succeeding in my plan and adopting a NEW HEALTHY HABIT.

Adjust - Much like my Tiny-Task example you'll notice that there was a an adjustment to the nature and flow of my yoga schedule. The plan wasn't bad but my execution needed some tweaking. As I've said before, "Tweak not twerk." Lol. Anyway, I had to train my self into a new habit by breaking down a big task into tiny steps. By accomplishing them I'm able to build my confidence and eventually tackle other projects and plans.  

Want more ideas on how-to-STYP?

For PART 2 check your inbox. Not a member? Click on the link below. 

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part 2

• Learn the process to track your habits.

• Learn how to categorize your priorities.

• Learn the creative way to de-clutter the mind.