[00:00:00] Hello, beautiful woman. Today I wanna talk to you and share with you around focus and I guess the foreign reality concentration, but really bringing it into focus and two ways, uh, and types of focus that we really want to be stimulating. And proactively bringing into our days and our life. So there are two main areas that I want to kind of dive into around our focus, and one of them is probably what you think of when you think of focusing, which is being focused in like laser focus.
Uh, laser focused in on one thing or a task or a person, uh, or a particular problem that you're trying to solve. And this is often what we think of when we think about our focus, and we can refer to this as our spotlight focus. Um, there is a really great book, actually, I've got it here. It's called Stolen Focus and I highly recommend it.
[00:01:00] And this concept of both the spotlight focus, which is really. All I ever thought of focus to be before I read this book. And then actually the other way that we need to let our mind focus, which is probably not how you think of focusing, uh, and which is called mind wandering. So having. Times where you purposefully let your mind wander.
And maybe this has been called daydreaming. Maybe this has been called being unproductive. Uh, you know, and it's probably the type of focus that is most under threat in our current. Lives and current day society and our distracted world, uh, because we're encouraged to focus in laser focus, have that spotlight focus on things, which is becoming more and more difficult because we are becoming more and more bombarded with having to multitask and have [00:02:00] notifications going off and trying to do so many things all at once.
Um, but it's the one that's focused on the. Letting our mind wander, that ability to actually let our mind focus across lots of different things and just kind of wander and focus on different areas. As it pleases, if you will, is even more under threat because it's seen as unproductive. And of course in our society, it's all about being more and more productive.
So why? Why is this so important, especially for us as entrepreneurs? As entrepreneurs? Cultivating both laser focus and mind wandering is crucial because it allows us to have more effective decision making, problem solving. As well as creative innovation. We are the innovators, we are the leaders, so beyond.
Making those decisions and solving those problems on a daily basis. We also have to be cultivating that creativity in ourselves to be the innovators and the [00:03:00] leaders, and have that ability as well to be able to switch between both of these states even within the same day, or to cultivate specific times for ourselves to develop the ability for that laser focus and for that ability to allow our minds to just wander and problem solve, and et cetera.
Increasing our ability to be laser focused is going to of course, enhance our productivity and therefore. Our task completion so that we can get more done in less time. So working smarter, not longer, and being able to be focused when we need to be focused, it is gonna help us to, as I said, improve our decision making so that we can lead our teams, lead our business.
Even if you don't have a team yet, when you are stuck in indecision, it is slowing down your business. It ends up leading to. A lot of overwhelm and in fact a lack of confidence. And so when we can make [00:04:00] decisions and then move into action, it increases our confidence even if we end up changing that decision, uh, we're going to, as we increase our ability to.
Have that laser focus and therefore trust in ourselves and our decisions. We are going to make sound judgments and we are going to avoid those impulsive decisions. And because we're more more present with our focus and so we are not making decisions while being distracted with our mind all over the place, it's also gonna help us to have increased resilience to distractions.
And let's face it, we need that these days. We need to be able to. Move away from distraction. We need to be able to do deep focused work. We need to be able to function away from distractions, and so that is something that we have to develop in ourselves, and especially in today's age of constant distraction.
We have to develop ourselves to be able to have that focused. [00:05:00] Amidst the chaos, often amidst family chaos or whatever it might be. But we need to be able to do that to be able to run our business. And then the mind wandering that ability to let our minds solve and create, it's going to increase that creativity and innovation.
It's going to improve our memory and our ability to learn and retain information because we're letting our mind. Run over that information. Put it together, and it's going to in fact, reduce our stress and our burnout because allowing our mind to wander provides that break from intense focus, which then in turn reduces the stress and improves our mental wellbeing.
So you can see that, of course, for anyone cultivating and developing and giving space for both laser focus and the mind wandering is really important, but it's extra important for us as entrepreneurs. [00:06:00] So let's dive into a couple of ways that we can support ourselves with both of these ways of focusing.
So I'm gonna give you two main exercises when it comes to these two areas, our spotlight focus and our mind wandering. Because when you learn to focus on one thing, when we're talking in regards to our spotlight focus, when you learn to focus in and have that spotlight focus. On one thing, it helps you focus on.
Anything. So it helps your concentration across. Anything else that you need to be concentrating on now? We really need to be developing our willpower to be able to concentrate more, but in turn also our focus and our concentration. Our ability to do that more is going to help with our willpower because we're able to stick at something for longer without being distracted by other things.
So the exercise for you in relation to that, uh, spotlight [00:07:00] focus is to either light a candle or draw a really small dot. Could be on a piece of paper that you stick on the wall or find a mark on the wall. Just a tiny little thing to focus on and you want to spend time, you can set an alarm. You could, first of all, send.
Set it for one minute, then you could extend it to two minutes and keep extending it to five minutes or 10 minutes. And what you wanna do is just stare at that candle or stare at that dot until you and the candle or the dot kind of become one. And you focus on that. And what you'll find is that your mind will wander.
And so when you realize that your mind is wandering off on other thoughts, you bring it back to the dot or the candle and you focus again on that, and that'll probably happen all the time, like in our visualization and our meditation. So mindfulness practices, meditation, [00:08:00] visualization, all of those things help with our focus because we're bringing that focus back into our breath, back into the present moment.
But this exercise, you'll find your mind wanders. Really often, probably almost straight away, but as you practice this and you do it regularly, you'll find that the time in between your mind wandering off will grow and your ability to stay focused in on that dot or that candle will also grow. Starting off with a small amount, a minute, two minutes, three minutes, five minutes, and then increasing it and just focus in on that, that spot or that candle.
And every time your mind wanders, bring it back. And what you'll find is that as you practice this, your ability to focus on other things throughout the day is going to increase. And this is gonna be great for any focused kind of, uh. Concentration that you need to have focused thinking time, being able to solve a [00:09:00] particular problem or get a particular piece of work done, or really focus in on a person that you have in front of you.
It's gonna help you concentrate in all areas of your life. The other side is to help the mind wandering that big picture focus, where we're letting our mind just actually focus on whatever as it wants to, and the big picture. So letting our mind wander. So again, this is gonna help with your creativity, with your problem solving, with your ability to kind of connect the dots when you've got big things going on.
All of those things. So your exercise here is actually to just allocate. Mind wandering time could be within your morning routine where you just set an alarm for 10 minutes and you sit and you don't have a particular agenda. You actually just sit there. You just let yourself be. You let your mind wander, or you might like to do this.
When you go for a walk, you not listen to a [00:10:00] podcast or music or anything else. You just walk. Of course you've got sounds around you, but you just let your mind wander. You might like to set aside time on a daily basis or at particular times during the week. It could be at the start of your work day where you actually allocate 15 minutes, half an hour of just thinking time, where you just let your mind wander around all of the things that are going on, maybe ideas that you've got, project you're working on.
Things that you need to resolve. Whatever it kind of attaches onto, because it's in these moments, you know? It's why oftentimes great ideas come to us when we're in the shower or just going for a drive with no music, no audio book, no podcast playing. When we are walking along, when we're not at our desk, these creative ideas [00:11:00] come to us because our mind is able to wander.
It's able to. Connect the dots. It's able to solve the problems. It's able to be creative, and this is so essential for us as the leaders of our business and our life. We need to make sure that we are not just allowing this, but actually cultivating and creating time for this, for both of these types of focus, for that laser focus where we need to get stuff done.
Get particular tasks done, go deep on a particular topic, you know, write that sales page, create that new offer, make the funnel, record the video, write the script, create the proposal, whatever it might be. Something very focused where you've already come up with the idea that's self-focused. Focused work time.
And then we also are responsible for [00:12:00] being the scientist, being the creator, being the creative, resolving the big hard problems and coming up with the new ideas. And so if we don't cultivate and create time. For mind wandering, for thinking, and giving ourselves that thinking space. This is a CEO move, so it can go into your CEO day each week.
It can go, it's important to go into your calendar. It's important that you do it regularly because this is where the big. Big ideas come from, and this is where we resolve the big issues. Rather than looking outwards, we are turning inwards and allowing ourselves to resolve challenges and to create new ideas.
Other things that help with your focus are staying healthy. Things like having enough sleep. Things like eating well, [00:13:00] things like exercising, being in good health, looking at any underlying illnesses or ailments, making sure that you're in good health is going to help you be able to focus in both of those ways.
Another way to increase your focus is to do cognitive training so you can get different apps and things like that to do cognitive brain training where you're moving up levels, you're having to solve problems when you're having to really focus in on something and try and solve a problem quickly with a time limit.
Things like crosswords, things like reading and being able to sit and read for a prolonged amount of time. Rather than feeling like you need to check your phone or go do something else, things where you have to concentrate on something, all of that is gonna help with your focus. Also, mindfulness. So the fact that we are practicing, being present, meditation, uh, doing breath work, and just choosing to bring yourself back into the present at random times throughout the [00:14:00] day and being able to bring your mind.
Into that present moment because mindfulness is really about being present in that moment. So when you do that and you practice and you're aware of it, that is gonna help your focus as well. I so look forward to hearing how you go with this and having some chats around how we can cultivate and be mindful around our focus and we can grow our ability to focus together.
So please share any experiences, any questions, and I look forward to hearing how you go with this. Have a beautiful rest of your day and I'll chat with you soon.
