Fire Up Your Focus?
Greater Life
As an entrepreneur over 50, your time is just beginning… Live the Greater Life
If attention is the most valuable asset on planet Earth…how do you ensure yours is wisely invested each day???
The following are 5 ways that have worked for me: someone who was recently diagnosed with adult ADHD and who, for years, has been on a quest to get the most living of life out of every moment.??
Some of these will be insanely obvious, others, perhaps less so.?
This may fall into the ‘insanely obvious’ category, but let’s unpick it a little. The late Dr. Anders Ericsson was a pioneer in the field of expert performance. It was his research that Malcolm Gladwell popularised (Ericsson would argue erroneously) into the ’10 000’hrs rule.??
?Ericsson suggests that one of the essential pathways to optimal performance in any field is what he terms ‘deliberate practice’ – which is the chunking down of tasks into specific achievable goals that lie just outside the reach of your current skill set.??
?Why have I chosen this angle to attack ‘be clear on what needs doing’ – because (1) it highlights both the importance of being as specific as possible, so that no extra mental energy is needed before you can begin engaging with the task, and (2) it offers a glimpse of how we can begin to compound the benefits of specific and small as we explore the other tools and principles I want to share. ? ?
This will not always be the case. Sometimes there will be tasks that seemingly require no struggle to complete, they simply have to be completed (eg spreadsheet data entry). But wherever it is the case that some element of struggle is present in seeking to accomplish the task, embrace it – because you are on the path to unlocking the holy grail of Focus: the Flow state, where you are more creative, innovative, dialled in and embodied – also known as being ‘in the zone’ ? ? As things get tough, it can be so easy to reach for the phone…hold the line. You could be moments away from career-defining work. Embrace the struggle. ? ?
On the surface, this may seem like the opposite of embracing struggle. I’m not talking about that kind of friction. I mean anything that might stop you from knuckling down once you are clear on what needs to be done. If you’re going to be writing, do you have your desk set up and your coffee in a keep-warm mug, so you don’t need to break your flow to find your favourite note-taking pen or warm up your caffeine???
?Equally, and this is something Mike and I are wrestling with in Greater Life at present – how can you minimise the friction of the hundreds of tech platforms that exist to help you (supposedly) minimise friction? ? ? Here’s a rule of thumb for me that has worked: Find something that works and stick to it until it doesn’t. Then be willing to invest the time and effort in learning to operate the next thing.??
?The endless to-ing and fro-ing between different apps exponentially increases the likelihood that you accidentally end up in a Facebook/LinkedIn 30-minute doom scroll that kills the momentum you’d built. ? ? Sound-based notifications of all but the most essential forms are another form of friction. Get rid of them and kill the possibility of your momentum and focus being killed.??
?Be boundaried as f***?
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We weren’t playing when we said your attention is your most valuable asset. If I gave you ￡36 000 and told you that you could double your money as long as you invested it wisely…I’m pretty certain you’d be careful about how you invested that money.??
You’d likely hold some pretty strong boundaries. You probably wouldn’t choose to buy a ‘brand new Rolex’ from a guy selling watches out the back of his van.??
Nor would you be likely to trust the slick salesperson pitching the latest NFT/Crypto fortune.??
Well, you may not get ￡36 000 every day, but a 10hr work day is 36 000 seconds – and every one of more priceless than money – because there’s no guarantee you get them tomorrow – so don’t spend them if you’re not getting a return on investment that thrills your soul.??
?Be boundaried as f***?
Systems are the safety net where will power withers.??
This means you can put in place rituals, rules and routines into your life that will guarantee your capacity to focus remains as strong as possible. One low-hanging fruit example of this is to do something important before you check any dopamine-rich social media feeds. ? ? Why? Research has shown that you are then coding your brain for which type of reward you want to experience that day: the dopamine of achieving something important (no matter how small) vs. the quick-fix-gimme-another-hit-in-20-minute dopamine of your social scroll.??
An example of how you might systemise this is to put a lock on all social platforms for the first hour of your work day – leaving you with no option but to pick the more long-term profitable option.??
Focus can be cultivated and strengthened – because it is the product of the suite of habits and attitudes by which you choose to run your day. And the best thing is…you get to design for you.??
Reading back across the list, I’m pretty strong with 2 and 3…definitely still working hard to master 1, 4 and 5. I hope the above helps…and if you want to be part of an incredible peer group where we build this kind of dailyYOU practice into our enterprising lives, then head over to www.Gr8r.life, where you can get yourself in the loop about our forthcoming ‘Quarter That Changes Everything’ experience – for entrepreneurs over 50.???
And follow the hashtags?#greaterlife?#helptheageless?#over50?#50plus #health #happiness #home #hustle