Stay focused, achieve excellence!
I came across this TEDx Talk by Marvin Chun. I suggest that you may consider taking the 20 minutes needed to watch this video, preferably with a 100% focus. It might be useful to practice the SILSA which I have written about, to help have this focus. Do the SILSA, stay 100% Focused
Of course, Marvin’s talk is backed up by research and data that he, and others, have done.
Personal Effectiveness is a pet topic for me, inspired by Kichu Krishnan. Personal Effectiveness is also almost always 1 of the Top 5 Priorities that clients identify in their “Goal Identification Process” that comes right at the beginning of our Happiness Coaching assignments. Based on data gathered over the last 7 years as a full time coach, this is by far the most important aspect that comes up for clients.
And rightly so because only when a person is able to manage their personal effectiveness, can they aspire or hope to do anything about all the other things in their lives.
Marvin talks about 3 things to enhance focus and achieve more. At the cost of sounding like I am bragging, these echo what we (Kichu, I and others in our circle of coaches) have found in working with people over many years.
1. Simplify 2. Relax 3. Unitask (do only one thing at a time, with 100% focus)
1. Simplify
Simplification requires the following:
Understand what REALLY matters, which leads to
Clarity of goals and purpose, along with
Clarity regarding values, that enables
Prioritisation, which results in
Appropriate use of time energy and other resources, which helps in
Simplifying life!
It is obvious that each of the items listed are by themselves worthy not just of an article, and an entire series of books on them – which has already been done by many people.
2. Relax
It is possible to relax using some simple techniques. Two of the biggest obstacles to relaxation are:
Anger (almost always about the past)
Fear (always about the future)
Most of the obstacles or problems that people experience in their lives with fall into the two big buckets of Anger and Fear.
I have written brief articles on both these here:
Along with this, just practicing breathing can help. According to Dr. Alan Watkins, the author of “Coherence – The Secret Science of Brilliant Leadership” the “BREATHE” technique is a huge component of managing HRV (Heart Rate Variability) which helps one to be the best they could be, at all times.
BREATHE is an acronym for:
B – Breathe
R – Rhythmically
E – Evenly,
A – And
T – Through the
H – Heart
E – Everyday
Of course, meditation, yoga and exercising are great for relaxation and for general health.
And yes, PRACTICE GRATITUDE and GIVING – these are sure to help a person relax.
3. Unitask
By far this is the biggest obstacle in todays world. We are, as Marvin says, spoilt by choices and the amount of information that we have access to. In this scenario, we need to have the ability to do ONE THING AND TO DO IT EXCELLENTLY WELL.
I ask my clients who say that they multitask, if they would be happy with a surgeon who is going to multitask while operating on them. The answer obviously is NO! And then I ask them, for any activity, when a person brings the focus of a surgeon operating on a patient, they are bound to create something that is the best that a person can.
This is where, doing the SILSA, helps. It helps oe to stay 100% in the moment. And a key contributor to being able to stay 100% focused and in the moment, is the ability to Simplify life.
And that creates an upward spiral leading to happiness, health, excellence and fulfilment.
Stay focused, healthy, happy and blessed!