Stop Distracting Yourself (WT409)

Stop Distracting Yourself (WT409)

Blog

WT 409 Stop Distracting Yourself

Speaking with a colleague this week, I was impressed with her clarity about what she is going to focus on for the remainder of the year.

“Two things, Shirley,” she said. “I’m focussing on just two things,” and then proceeded to outline what those two things are.

In order to focus on the two things, she realised she needed to give up a number of other things that had been what she called “distractions”.

Listening to her, I could totally relate to what she was saying.

As I thought about what she shared, I thought about all the things that I had been doing lately that were not “moving the needle” as my colleague says.

I started to count up the lost hours working on things that were not moving me forward and I made a decision there and then to analyse all my current commitments and sort them into needle movers or expenses (in terms of time or money or enjoyment or lost opportunities).

Once I completed my analysis and made decisions to let things go, I felt an enormous sense of relief as well as anticipation. For example, my radio contract with Voice America expired this month, and as much as I enjoyed meeting new guests and learning so many interesting things, not renewing the contract has added at least an extra 3 hours of time back into my week, which I can now allocate to needle movers.

How about you? What distractions are you currently allowing? How much are they costing you? Have you measured the cost in terms of time, money, enjoyment or lost opportunities because you have to say “No” to other things?

Your challenge this week is to take inventory of your commitments. Assess whether they are needle movers – moving you forward towards your goal or something you absolutely love doing. If not, ask yourself how you can relieve yourself of your commitment and take action to do so.

Your distractions are costing you. It’s time to stop distracting yourself.

Give Up the Drama (WT408)

Give Up the Drama (WT408)

Blog

WT 408 Give up the drama

This week has been a doozy for interpersonal dramas; mine, my clients, my colleagues and friends and family. 

It’s fascinating to me, how we interpret what people say according to our values, beliefs and expectations or what’s going on in our head at any given time. 

My point this week is not to share gossip; quite the opposite. My point is that we get what we focus on, so let’s focus on what we want, rather than what we don’t want. 

Let’s say you have a disagreement with your co-worker. Most people’s tendency is to seek support with other co-workers to sure up their position as being right or the victim. When this happens your co-workers become what we call “co-conspirators”.  Time and energy is now directed to talking about the other person, sharing anecdotes of past wrongs and generally enlisting others into the cause. 

This is drama. 

It takes you away from the focus of your work. It reduces productivity and it’s toxic to those around. 

Even worse than that, it stops you from achieving what you really want. 

And you don’t even have to be engaging in gossip to be adding fuel to the fire. You could be going over and over the conversation in your head; analysing what he or she said over and over and thinking about your responses or potential responses. 

Stop It. 

Give up the drama. 

As soon as you become aware that you are thinking about the situation and/or enlisting others or gossiping – just stop it. 

This is draining your energy and only serving to bring you more of the same, just with different people. 

The best thing you can do for yourself is to assert yourself and then either resolve it with the person or let it go. Do not give it any more attention. Rather focus on the outcomes you want – the income you want, the customers you want, the job you want, the partner you want, the travel you want to do.   

Imagining the positive and feeling how you’ll feel when you’ve achieved it, is the quickest way to get what you want. 

Go ahead and give up the drama.

Pin It on Pinterest