How to Stay Focused on Your Goal

Focus gets assassinated when you find yourself being distracted. If you find yourself disoriented, scattered, or if you have no plan, your focus is going to get nailed in the process. If your focus is gone, you will not be able to do what you need to do in order to see the goal attained. Remember, we must ‘be’ before we can ‘do’ and we must ‘do’ before we can ‘have’. If we want to have a certain benefit from a certain goal, we must do what we need to do in order to see that take place. When we become the kind of person that sets goals, stays focused, believes the goal can be hit, manages time well, organizes details, maintains a positive outlook and thinks with a solution mindset (all examples of ‘being’) we end up exactly where we want to end up.

We’ve all learned that what we believe is what we become. It’s really that simple. When we believe life will go our way, it does. When we believe it won’t, it doesn’t. BELIEVE IT AND YOU’LL BE BLESSED; DON’T AND YOU WON’T. I have learned in my years in the weight loss and fitness businesses that what you focus on can totally change what you believe. Focus controls everything. It’s amazing. What’s even more amazing is that it takes only three steps to stay focused.

knowing what the goal is
revisiting the goal on a weekly basis (at least)
determination

Is your goal in your conscious mind all the time? You see, when your goal is in your conscious mind all the time, you’ll stay focused on it. The way to put it in your conscious mind all the time is to sit down and write out five-year goals. Why? Because your goal isn’t a one or two month thing. It’s probably something you want forever, right? I want to live for a long time, and I want to pass on to my babies and my grandbabies a legacy of health, positive attitude, happiness, abundance, and energy. That’s a lifetime thing.

Sit down and do a five-year goal sheet, and from there a three-year, a one-year, a six-month, a three-month, a two-week, and a one-week goal sheet. Then, every single week go back and look at those goals. It doesn’t take barely any time to look them over once a week and the effort is well worth it. That will keep them in your mind and keep you focused.

If you are focused on your goals in your conscious mind, you are much less likely to become distracted. Even without knowing it, you’ll begin to do, say and think things that will get you to that goal AND you’ll stop doing things that will prevent the goal from becoming reality (distractions). Motivation lives inside you. Writing out your goals and rereading them will help you to keep tapping into that motivation. Here’s an exercise to prove this.

After reading these words, practice this exercise. Look around you and find a point on the wall or a point anywhere in the room, and focus on it. Find a point and really stare at that point. Stare at it hard. Don’t look away. Are you focused on a certain point in the room? Now focus on the center of that point. Don’t look away; stay focused on the center of that point. Don’t look at anything else. Really stare at that point. Now focus on the center of the center of the point. Do you see it? Do you see the center of the center of the point? I want you to keep your focus on the center of the center, and raise your hands to shoulder level, and shake them, but keep your focus on the center of the center. Okay, focus back on this article.

Could you tell that what was moving was a set of hands? Not if you were focused on the center you couldn’t. You saw a little movement. But if you were focused on the center of the center of that point, you probably didn’t see much. When you’re focused you don’t see the distractions.

When you focus on your goals, the distractions of life are less likely to take you down and keep you from reaching them. When we’re focused, many times we don’t even see the distractions. If we do see the distractions, we don’t give them so much attention that they take from us the ability to keep focusing on the goal. It’s our goal we see the most when we’re focused. The five-year plan, the three-year plan, or even just a one-year plan will help you maintain your focus and achieve your goals.

Now let’s talk about how to tap into what that lies within you, the thing that is ultimately going to take you to your goal because it is what defeats the motivation assassinators–determination. First let’s talk about the definition of determination. Determination is a firm intention; having one’s mind made up; being unwavering. Now that doesn’t come from convenience. It has to be unwavering. That means it is ‘bull-headed’ even when things aren’t ideal. So it doesn’t live in a world of “well I’d like to”, or “it would be nice” or “I’d kind of like that.” Tony Robbins says “We ‘should’ all over ourselves, it can’t be a ‘should’; it needs to be an ‘I will’ or even an ‘I must’.” And then it’ll happen.

It’s very, very simple. Have consistency – do it the same way each time. Make the positive choice each time. Expect more from yourself than anyone else would expect from you. When you expect more from yourself you will achieve the goal for sure. It’s simply about raising your standards. You see when we put forth poor efforts we really get no result. When we put forth excellent efforts we get good results. When we put forth outstanding efforts the results are just immeasurable. So simply expect more from yourself, make up your mind that you’re going to stay focused on that goal, overcome those motivation assassinators, and make positive choices.

Remember there are three levels in overcoming the motivation assassinators. Level number one is identifying it and then making the correct choice. Identify it and take a breath. Then make the right choice. Once you’ve done that for a while you’ll move to level two.

Level two is choosing an ulterior approach, something that you can do instead of the negative choice – not just not making the negative choice.

Finally the third level involves pouring good positive stuff into your mind on an ongoing basis that will equip you to always make the positive choice. Decide not to let the motivation assassinators get you. Give away information to others that has worked for you. When you learn something new, give it away to somebody else. As many people as you possibly can. I know that kind of sounds silly but it’s powerful. That will stir up your determination. That will make you stronger and you will be constantly beating the motivation assassinators.

This isn’t about positive thinking, this is about action. Now most people don’t step up and they don’t take this action. They don’t let this kick in because of fear. They’re afraid of trying again and failing or looking bad in front of other people.

But remember that stepping up against what you fear is, in and of itself, is a motivation assassinator. That’s the negative belief trying to get you. Let’s start identifying these things when they show up. When we influence ourselves by conquering our fear, we decide we’re going to accomplish our goal.

We need to just have a strategy for going in the right direction. Remember when you make a very slight shift; you end up killing the motivation assassinators when they’re little. It’s like the example I’ve given of sitting on the couch and not doing the exercises on the floor. Get off the couch; be willing to do the exercises for five, ten minutes. You’ll probably end up doing them longer. But the bottom line is, you’ve made a decision and you’ve killed that motivation assassinator before it became huge.

When you’re faced with a motivation assassinator, push through, make a choice, and make a decision to make the positive choice. Just make a decision, put yourself in a mental state to decide. Realize you have a choice. You can let the motivation assassinator kill your motivation or you can execute the motivation assassinator. Once you start identifying these motivation assassinators and recognize them when they show up, every single time that happens, realize they don’t have to take out your motivation. You decide to make the right move and take out that motivation assassinator or let it take down your level of motivation. Just make the right choice.

Also, remember conditioning. Just doing the same thing again and again when you’re exercising, for instance when you’re doing ten reps – do you suppose it’s the tenth rep that causes the muscle to grow? No, it’s really the eleventh rep. And it might be the twelve or thirteenth that really causes the muscle to grow. Well that’s what you want to do when you’re creating new habits and kicking in determination. You want to do just a little bit more than you would have done in the past.

When you’re most tired of being determined push yourself through. Just say to yourself, “I’m only going to do this for today. I’m not going to do this after today.” Your determination can kick in when you say “I’m only going to do this for today.” You’ll master today, and you’ll find that those motivation assassinators have less power in your life tomorrow.

Spend 90 percent of your time living in ways that will get you to your goal. Allow yourself ten percent for not living in those ways. You’re going to be amazed.

Article by Donna Krech