How To Eliminate Distractions and Refocus Yourself

I felt utterly overwhelmed in mind and emotions. Distractions were getting in the way of my success.

When I started coaching, I had one mission.

That mission was teaching people how to identify their talents and make extra money.

I committed to helping one person a week for over a year. Every week, I’d have a person from a Facebook group that I was invited to help.

It may not sound like a lot to do, but during that time I had a full-time job.

But then, I experienced what I can only describe as “Focus creep.”

It’s that sneaky thing that happens when you have one goal; and then you add another goal, to your “must-do” list; and later probably a week, maybe a month or even a year or two, you look at what you’re doing every day and realize that you have 19 different goals you’re working on each day.

Coaching connected me with people.

So I started a Facebook group to help more people start businesses and to grow an audience.

Then my time was divided; no longer was I focusing on coaching. I also had to give value to my Facebook community, too.

Then, I noticed a significant portion of my audience wanted to sell physical products and didn’t know how to get started.

I decided to start another FB group focused on helping them do so.(They didn’t quite fit in on my previous FB group.) More distractions.

Now, I had four things to focus on. Big things that needed thought, and strategy, and planning. Big things that needed my nurturing.

But you know what?

We really can’t focus on more than one thing.

To make progress on anything, we need one focus. Otherwise, instead of giving 95% of our attention to one goal, we only offer 15%.

The reality, my focus wasn’t even 15% because I didn’t prioritize and learn enough about social media to create real success.

And because I could not possibly switch into focusing on those many projects in a day or make meaningful progress, I started letting a few things fade out.

I started leaving unfinished projects and neglecting others because I didn’t seem to make progress.

This is the price I was paying for all the distractions there were piling up.

Did you know that progress is motivating?

For example, if people are trying to find a soulmate, they are far more likely to stick to their goals of finding a soulmate if they see a potential date.

So as I failed to make progress at all on the goals I set out, even though it seemed like I had sliced away at least some of them every day, I began to think that maybe I got it wrong.

Perhaps I am not cut out for this.

It’s not working out.

And all the while it never occurred to me that distractions were my problem.

Truth be told it does work, but I had only been giving it 9% rather than the 95% I should have been giving it.

I reached a breaking point.

My life was in shambles. I skimped on sleep and that had other repercussions like adding weight and chronic migraines.

I felt I just needed to get through the day. Lack of focus left me overwhelmed, ashamed and sick.

I decided to get help. I researched and hired a mentor to help me stay focused. He held a mirror up, and I realized I had it all wrong and needed to cut back.

Almost everyone experiences overwhelm at some point in their lives.

It doesn’t have to be about your business, it could be about your job, It could be something fierce in your personal life.

You probably can relate to this.

And you probably want out.

So here’s how to get out.

How to deal with distractions

1) Discover Your # 1 ONE Thing.

I read a book by Gary Keller ” ONEthing, ” and it says the ONEthing is sometimes the only ONEthing that you need to make progress.

If there’s one goal, you want to achieve that will move the needle. That’s the only one goal you need to help you move forward.

Not sure what it is?

Ask yourself what’s your reason for wanting to achieve that goal.

For example, if your goal is to find your soulmate, make that a priority.

You can’t just sit and wait for a soulmate to fall out of the sky, you have to make progress and make it happen.

And if you’re not good at dating-work on improving yourself like going out to meet people or having a matchmaker.

I had to choose the ONEthing. My goal was to coach and FB groups had to go. To do this, I had to refocus on my “why” for wanting to start a business.

2) Mercilessly Eliminate What’s in The Way

I had an e-commerce group. I coached clients to start their business and I had two Facebook groups.

I had to check myself, and I needed a solution, after consulting with my coach I said no to silent goal killer and shut down the FB groups and discontinued the ecommerce clients because it didn’t that didn’t align with my why.

My why was to help people discover their talents and start side business but not teach what products to sell.

We have 24 hours in each day, which means if we allow silent goal killers to creep in we spend less time doing the ONEthing.

To mercilessly eliminate your silent goal killers know what it is first. You can start by tracking every minute of how you spend your days. If you’re switching tasks track how much time you spend on that switch. Ruthlessly eliminate any little creeper that tries to fill the gaps.

3) Schedule a Reality Check With Yourself

It’s far too easy to give in to silent goal killers than you think. It creeps in and before you know it, if you don’t outsmart it, it’ll take over your productivity, and you will feel overwhelmed, frustrated and doubtifull.

Once you’ve nailed down your #1 goal and ruthlessly cut everything that’s in the way, don’t be surprised if in a month or a couple of months you find yourself dealing with silent goal killer gain.

Be proactive and schedule a goal review with yourself at the end of each week or the beginning of the following week.