I chose the week’s value well because it led me to become super clear about my Q3 goals. I feel like I’m all set to have a great Q3! A large part of having clarity is being honest with yourself. If you aren’t internally resisting any of your issues or desires and are open to any consequences of the decisions you make, clarity will be easier to access.
I’m happy with where my Q3 goals and plans landed. I’m in the process of setting up systems to ensure that I follow through and I’m feeling pretty optimistic. Part of it was syncing my plans with the way I’ve acted over the last several months. I can be fairly certain that my nature of working and engaging with life isn’t going to radically change as soon as it’s a new quarter so I’d rather work with my patterns than expect myself to behave in ways I’m not used to.
I had clarity in other ways too. I had clarity about what I needed to stop doing just as much as what I needed to start or continue doing. For example, I had the clarity that I needed to deliberately limit external stimuli so that I can focus on my goals. It’s one thing to focus but another to remove those things that cause un-focus. Sounds obvious but was an important realisation to have. If I had to choose a word for the quarter, it would be depth and that means that breadth would need to be eliminated. So I needed to actively say no to the things that might need me to venture into territories that aren’t already a part of my Q3 narrative. This includes all areas of life – projects, people, places (online and offline), etc. I desperately desire that sense of having experienced life in its juicy detail this quarter and going deep into my work, the people in my life, projects, thoughts, etc would ensure this.
Week #27 – Focus
Always remember, your focus determines your reality.
– George Lucas
Now that I have clarity on what to focus on, what’s left is to actually do the focusing. It seems like a great value to practice to set the tone for the quarter. It isn’t just about focusing on my quarterly goals, though. My internal mental landscape is quite chaotic (ENFJ and their Ni traits, anyone?) and I feel like my brain thinks about a dozen things it wants to do at a given point in time while obsessing over interpersonal stuff. Focusing on one task is hard usually, unless it’s something physical such as dance or working out at the gym. I’d like to start bringing more structure to my moment to moment reality by practicing focus.
So here’s what I’m planning to do:
a) Read my quarterly goals as soon as I wake up to remind myself of what I’ve promised myself.
b) Multiple times a day, ask myself, “what’s my focus right now?” and bring my mind back to the task at hand. This is a technique that’s practiced in meditation – training the brain to come back to the breath when you find it wandering off. I’ll set reminders for every two hours to check in with myself. I anticipate doing this more number of times spontaneously once I start consciously practicing this.