The Mindset Mentor - 3 Keys to Mastering Your Focus

Episode Date: April 8, 2019

Episode 568 - We are given a finite amount of energy throughout the day, shouldn't we want to be as focused as can be so that we can be as productive as we possible? That sounds great, but we are all masters of distraction. So in this episode, I will give you the keys to being as focused as possible so that you can be the most productive that you have ever been. Want to learn more about Mindset Mentor+? For nearly nine years, the Mindset Mentor Podcast has guided you through life's ups and downs. Now, you can dive even deeper with Mindset Mentor Plus. Turn every podcast lesson into real-world results with detailed worksheets, journaling prompts, and a supportive community of like-minded people. Enjoy monthly live Q&A sessions with me, and all this for less than a dollar a day. If you’re committed to real, lasting change, this is for you.Join here 👉 www.mindsetmentor.com My first book that I’ve ever written is now available. It’s called LEVEL UP and It’s a step-by-step guide to go from where you are now, to where you want to be as fast as possible.📚If you want to order yours today, you can just head over to robdial.com/bookHere are some useful links for you… If you want access to a multitude of life advice, self development tips, and exclusive content daily that will help you improve your life, then you can follow me around the web at these links here:Instagram TikTokFacebookYoutube

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right now would be the time to go check it out. So once again, go to coachwithrob.com slash podcast to see if it's right for you, for if you need extra coaching, extra lessons, extra accountability, and a group of people to hold you to what you say you're going to do and actually get there, then this might be right for you. So once again, last but not least, go to coachwithrob.com slash podcast. Okay, so let's go ahead and dive into today's episode. So today we're going to be talking about how to focus. And the reason why is because we have a finite amount of energy every single day. It's kind of like your phone, right? If you wake up

at night, you have your phone, wake up in the morning, you charge your phone all night, you start off at 100%, but your energy starts to slowly die throughout the day that being said wouldn't you want to make sure that you're focusing on the things that are the most important but not only focusing on things most important when you are doing things that you are 100 present so that you can be as focused and productive as possible it seems pretty important doesn't it so i'm going to give you my tips on how to stay as focused as possible throughout every single day. And I'm going to give you three tips. Tip number one is to stop practicing distraction. What do I mean by practicing distraction? Well, think about this for a second. Most of us wake up, let's say we

wake up at 7am, right? We wake up, we have an alarm on our phone. So then we, you know, we turn the alarm off on our phone. We pick our phone up and we brush our teeth as we're looking at our phone. Maybe we go to the bathroom as we're looking at our phone. We go and make breakfast real quick. We turn on some music, we turn on the TV, we turn on YouTube. And then we go into our car and we listen to a podcast. We listen to, uh, you know, maybe we pull up YouTube and listen to that YouTube. Maybe put on music, put on NPR or whatever it is that you listen to. I don't know what, what is it you listen to, but then we get to work and then we get to work and we put on our headphones or we go out and do all these things.

But then we come home and we watch TV and we watch Netflix and all of it. What we're doing is we're constantly distracting ourself. So if you're up for 16 hours a day, you're distracting yourself most of the time for 16 hours a day, unless you meditate. Maybe you can subtract 20 minutes from that. We are masters of distraction. And the opposite of focus is distraction. Why is it so hard for us to focus? Because we are professionals at distracting ourselves, right? If you think about, let's say you want to play basketball. If you wake up today and for the next six months, all you do as soon as you wake up is play basketball for 16 hours a day.

Even if you've never played basketball before, if you practice for 16 hours a day for the next six months, you're going to be pretty freaking good by the time that six months rolls around. How long have you been distracting yourself? It hasn't been six months. It's been most of your life, most likely. All of us. It's not just you.

It's me as well. All of us are masters of distraction. So why is it so hard to focus? Because we are distracting ourselves all of the time. focus because we are distracting ourselves all of the time. We have so many different places that we distract ourselves through our phones, through our computer, through our TV, through what we listen to, what we watch, the places that we hang out with. We can't sit outside and look on a weekend at how beautiful the scenery is because as soon as we wake up, we're like, man, we got to go out and do something. We need to go to brunch. We need to hang out with people. We need to do this.

We need to have mimosas, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We're constantly doing things all of the time and we become good at what we practice. So if you want to get better at focus, then you need to stop practicing distraction and start practicing focus. So that dives into tip number two, absolutely no notifications. When you're working on something, no notifications. My phone, it is impossible to get ahold of me through any other way on my phone, except for a phone call. If you send me a text message, I won't see the text message unless I pick up my phone because I don't get notifications. If you send me a Facebook message, I'll never see it on my phone. Anything that happens, the only way to get a hold of me

is through a phone call. I do not want distraction. I'm around friends sometimes, and this is not me judging them, but I'm around friends sometimes and I'm looking, you know, we're at dinner and their phone's going off, their phone's going off, their phone's going off, their phone's going off. And it's stuff like, you know, a notification of, you know, they just became friends with this person on Facebook or they have an Instagram notification or they have a Tinder notification or a hinge notification or Bumble, whatever all of those dating apps are. They have notifications on everything that they have on their phone. If you just want to be less distracted and be able to be more focused, turn off all of your notifications. I have a MacBook and I have an iPhone, which means that naturally my iMessage

should pop up. I don't allow it to pop up. I have no notifications on my computer as well. So no notifications on my computer, no notifications on my phone. The reason why is because I want to get things done. They have found that it is impossible to multitask. Multitasking actually is really just you switching from one task to another, which lowers your productivity. It does not raise it.

So tip number two is to get rid of all of the notifications that you possibly can on your phone, on your Apple Watch, on your computer. Get rid of all of the notifications and it will become easier to be less distracted and focus. And the third tip that I have for you, which is very, very key is this one thing at a time. Okay. I don't want you to focus on everything because if you try to focus on everything, there's a pretty good chance that nothing's going to change because you'll be like, Oh, I'm supposed to focus on this. And I'm supposed to focus on this. And I'm supposed supposed to focus on this. I have all these things I'm supposed to focus on. And if you have too many things to focus on, guess what? You won't focus on any of them. So the challenge that I have for

you is this over the next 30 days, can you have one intention, one thing that you're going to focus on? So find something that you do every single day and bring intention to that one thing. So let's say for instance, that you are married. Let's say this one thing that you want to get better at and that you want to become laser-like focus. The first thing that you're going to train yourself on, you know, if you're going to the gym, you're trying to get bigger biceps, you're going to train your biceps as often as possible. If you're trying to get better at focusing, we're going to zoom in on just one thing and that's communicating with your wife

or with your husband. That's simple. So every time your spouse talks to you, you're going to stop doing whatever it is that you're doing. You're going to square your shoulders up to them and you're going to listen to them and you're going to give them 100% of your focus as they're talking over the next 30 days, right? This is one intention over the next 30 days. You stop reading, you stop being on your phone, stop watching TV, you stop with your computer, whatever it is, you stop. You give them 100% of your focus. This could be intention for your children as well. Maybe you want to be more intentional in being present with your children. Then when you're with your children, whenever they're talking to you,

whenever you're in the room, whatever it is, you're not on your phone, you're not on your computer, you're not watching TV, you are 100% present with them over the next 30 days. This could be anything. Maybe you don't have kids. Maybe you don't have a spouse. Maybe you're not in a relationship.

What is one thing that you do every single day that you can bring 100% of your focus to over the next 30 days. That's the challenge that I have for you. If you want to get better at being focused, stop practicing distraction and start practicing focus. So over the next 30 days, what is that one thing? So you're going to have your intention. You're going to have your focus on that one thing and it's going to be for the next 30 days. Okay. Let me say that again. You're going to have your intention. You're going to have your focus on that one thing. And it's going to be for the next 30 days. Okay, let me say that again. You're going to have your intention.

You're going to focus on just that one thing whenever it happens over the next 30 days. And you're going to focus on the next 30 days. I'm not saying talk to your wife every single moment of the next 30 days. I'm just saying when you talk to your wife, can you give her 100% of your focus? And what you do is you set your intention wife, can you give her 100% of your focus? And what you do is you set your intention as soon as you wake up in the morning. As soon as you wake up in the morning, you're going to say to yourself throughout the course of today, anytime that my children are in my presence, I will stop everything that I'm doing. And I'll focus on just being 100%

present with them. I won't think about the future. I won't think about work. I won't think about the bills that have to be paid. I will think about being present with my children over the next 30 days. And as soon as you wake up, as you're brushing your teeth, as soon as you get done brushing your teeth, you look yourself in the mirror and you tell yourself that intention,

and you focus on just that one thing for the next 30 days. And then what happens is, you start getting really present with your children. And you go, you know what? I'm gonna bring my focus into something else. Maybe my work. Whenever I'm at work, I'm going to turn off all notifications. I'm not going to have my phone anywhere near me. I'm actually going to turn my phone off. I'm going to put a sign on my door that says I am working no distractions so that I can focus on just this one thing. That's it. Have an intention. Focus on just that intention whenever you are doing it and focus for the next 30 days.

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