Focus

Lazy Sundays Equal Productive Mondays

/ Kirsten Flory / Leave a comment

How much can you get done in 48 hours?  Advertisements for home improvement stores appeal to weekend projects as the way to cram in that to-do list item as one would advertise for a relaxing vacation.  Weekends tend to be our time for cleaning, stocking the fridge, spending time with family and friends, gardening and perhaps if you’re lucky – doing something totally relaxing.  Okay, some of my loved ones do consider gardening relaxing.

I am loving this time of year – you know, the time of the year after football season, and before baseball?  My Sundays are not currently filled with the sound of the TV running one game into the other and only ending with a cry for tasty burgers off the grill.  Historically Sundays have been called the “day of rest.”  No work, no exertion, only some leisure activities to fill the day.  Ahhhh.

The life / business organization company FranklinCovey has a program called FOCUS: Achieving Your Highest Priorities.  They present the challenge of “(w)hen work effort isn’t in sync with a person’s life values and priorities, it’s easy to be busy on less meaningful matters. Even technologies devised to mobilize and liberate can paralyze us in an avalanche of data and clutter. So instead of focusing on and responding proactively to what’s truly important, employees become distracted and feel pressure to react to situations perceived as urgent.”  How’s that for kicking off your work week?

FranklinCovey goes on to say “(w)hen people’s daily activities align with their highest priorities, they have a credible claim to better performance, higher achievement, and peace of mind.” 

On a Sunday (or day off from work), what are your priorities?  Can you turn away from the clutter around you for just a short while and focus on what’s really important?

By giving your mind, body and soul a much needed rest (even for just one day a week) it can do wonders for your productivity come Monday morning.

Don’t Force It

/ Kirsten Flory / Leave a comment

Have you ever had one of those days when everything flows gracefully?  The sun is shining, you arrive early for every appointment, you get a free coffee because it’s the day your punch card is full, and that “rock star” parking place magically opens up as you get ready to pull into your destination.  Just thinking of days like that puts a smile on my face.

Then, you have days that are exactly the opposite.  You are running late, your attitude is grumpy from the get-go, you spill coffee on your freshly dry-cleaned pants, and the day goes downhill from there.

Do you have any control over what kind of day you have?

My friend and Executive Coach, Jay Pryor  www.pryorconsult.com , shared with me a fundamental message: what you focus on gets bigger.  Jay even challenged me to try out this concept, and asked me to remove all negative chatter from my mind.  What?  Negative chatter?  Me?  Jay explained that negative chatter is all that stuff that goes on in your head to make you feel doubt, guilt, insignificance, and gives you that glass is half empty feeling – towards yourself and others. I feel like I’m a fairly positive person, but had to admit that negative chatter does get the best of me sometimes.  Although, this was very difficult to do (as we humans tend to revert back to pre-programmed messages that pull us away from thinking in a new way) I gave it a try.

What I realized through this exercise was that I needed to make it easy and not force it.  When negative thoughts came into my mind, I made a habit of releasing them.  By not giving negativity your time and focus, it opens you up to the good and positive.  So many times we yearn for those positive things to come into our life, and we get frustrated when they don’t happen as quickly as we hope.

The power of creating the positive action you desire in your life, is by being proactive.  Now, I don’t mean if you desire something that is a stretch that you should force yourself, your finances or your family into that desire at whatever cost.  What I encourage you to consider is that we should erase negativity, put in a little work ourselves, and let the possibilities flow.