Direct Your Focus to BIG DREAMS
Direct your focus to get results that lift you into your BIG DREAMS. All the doing in the world won’t get you there unless the actions are aimed at the target.
When I was learning to throw, my dad encouraged me to point where I wanted the ball to go as I was releasing the ball. By pointing at that moment of release, I increased the accuracy of the throw.
Was it because I pointed that the ball went to that place? Of course not. I’m pointing right now and there has yet to be a ball hit the wall where I’m pointing. Instead, pointing at the moment of release helped me focus my aim and allowed me to develop the muscle memory to throw with accuracy – or at least more accuracy than I have when I throw without focus. The action focused my aim.
Focus Takes Us Where We Direct It
Before my father-in-law stopped driving, or more accurately before I stopped riding with him, he gave me quite a few breath-stopping moments when I rode with him.
He almost always talked with me when he was driving, usually discussing the things around us. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was that when he’d look at something, he’d turn towards that something – his focus following his attention. This was bad enough when his focus was towards the passenger side of the road. At least that was toward a ditch. But when it was on the driver’s side, that would mean swerving into on-coming traffic.
Thus, my lost breath (and maybe the reason for a few of the gray hairs on my head).
His focus turned us in its direction.
Whether you’re throwing a ball, driving while talking, or pursuing your BIG DREAMS, your focus matters. A cloudy or misdirected focus will leave you in a ditch (if you’re lucky, that’s all it’ll do).
Breaking Down the Directed Focus
- Record your efforts – you have to know what you’re getting before you can change what you’re doing. Otherwise, you get tangled in shiny object syndrome.
- Review your results – see what’s working so you can do more of it (or change what doesn’t).
- Create space for focus – if you don’t make the space then you will make the excuse.
- Guard your focus space – don’t let other things (or people) invade your space.
- Use your space – do what you plan to do when you plan to do it.
When you direct your focus then you hit your target. It’s simple. It’s powerful. And it works. Distractions, misdirections, and depleted resources will try to pull your focus. Lock it down so you can lock into your BIG DREAMS.
Foggy Focus Misses the Mark
I was driving home from a state driving meet while the other three divers napped. At fifteen, I hadn’t had a whole lot of driving experience, and most of that consisted of driving around the blocks in our small town.
The drive was supposed to be simple, they told me. “Just stay on this road.”
Their direction worked for a while, and then we came to an intersection that had fifteen hundred lanes and twice as many directional options. My inexperienced driver’s brain panicked. “Which way,” I yelled to the sleeping bunch.
“Left.”
“Right.”
“Straight.”
It might have been funny had I not been already overwhelmed. Everyone provided a different direction without taking any time to see where we were or where we needed to go. Their brains were foggy with sleep and their directions were equally foggy.
I went straight. In part, I chose that direction because I was already going that direction. Mostly, I chose straight because I didn’t have to change lanes and face the daunting traffic surging around me.
No matter the reason, I chose wrong.
We only went a few blocks before I was ordered to pull over into a gas station parking lot. We regrouped. We changed drivers. I tried to calm the flaring nerves going off in every area of my body.
With a few directions from the clerk, along with a check of the map, we were back on track, the only thing worse for the wear was my frayed nerves.
When it comes to our life journey, too often we come to that crowded intersection and panic. “Which way?” We yell to anyone that might hear our pleas. Their answers rarely take into account what we are trying to do, what we’ve already done, and what we really need to be doing in the next phase of our journey. What’s even worse, It can be too many wasted years and too many wanted resources before we pull over and regroup.
The best way to make the most of what you got is to keep your focus directed toward your unique target. Until you direct your focus, you will not be in a position to harness your why.
Five Steps to Direct Your Focus
1. Record Your Efforts
You have to know what you’ve done to know what you need to do. Nothing is more frustrating than getting halfway through a task before you realize you’ve already done that leg of your project.
I was starting through the second draft of one of my books – which for me requires deciphering my handwritten first draft (which is such a challenge even for the one who wrote the words in the first place that we have a family game called, “What Did Mom Write” in which everyone takes a guess at what that word or phrase might be).
I got through several pages before I decided to save it in a second location (ALWAYS save in more than one location – just me on this one). When I opened the folder to save into, I found a previous version of the same 2nd draft I had started on a while back.
I had forgotten and I hadn’t bothered to make any kind of note or notation to let me know how far along I had gotten. Now, not only had I wasted the time redoing the second draft, but I had the new task of melding together the two drafts.
Had I kept a record of my projects then I would have known what I had done, where I had stopped, and where to start back up.
Keep a record of your focused actions so you can pick back up where you were when you are able to start on the project again.
2. Review Your Results
It’s not just about what you’ve done, but what you’ve accomplished in your doing. What are the results of your actions?
I joined a gym when I was in college. I’ve always had broad shoulders and what I considered big arms, so those were not the areas where I wanted to focus. I explained all of my concerns to the trainer assigned to me. “If I work out my arms, they bulk up fast.” I had learned from experience training for basketball.
“Don’t worry. The plan I have will keep the reps high and the weight low and you won’t bulk up.” The trainer was quite sure of himself.
I again attempted to explain my past experiences, but he challenged me to trust him. “Just give my program a little time.”
A little time was all he got. At the end of the week, we took my measurements and compared them to the ones taken the first night. Already, I had gained an inch in my arms.
So much for following his plan.
But that’s a perfect example of trying to follow someone else’s plan when you are walking out your journey – especially when your experience tells you otherwise. It may have worked for that person. It may have worked for a hundred other people. But it doesn’t mean it will work for you.
Because we had recorded my efforts, I was able to make the changes necessary to get the results I wanted. If we hadn’t been measuring and reviewing then I may have ended up a She-Hulk before I knew to make a change (perfectly okay if you want that look, but not the look I was going for).
When you review your results then you can quickly adjust so you stay directed in your focus for your desired goals.
3. Create Space for Your Focus
You need a place to get it done if you’re going to be able to get it done – and space can be physical or time-centered.
In our home, I had carved out a room where I could go and shut out the world. It was my space. When I wanted to work in privacy, I closed the door and they stayed out.
Since the tornado of 2020, I haven’t had that. I do have carved out my own area in each of the places we’ve landed, but it’s been open to the world (or the world living in the same home as me).
I used to be able to create my space with a door. It was my physical space.
I have had to shift to finding my space in the face of the clock. I set aside time when I know I can work uninterrupted – usually early in the morning when nobody else is stirring or late at night when they’ve all gone to bed.
It’s not ideal, but it’s a way to carve out the space I need for focus.
I map out the time in my Focus Folder and I try to plan out what I’ll do when that time rolls around.
Thanks to Nathan Ingram for encouraging the use of Block Time. I did modify it to work in my Focus Folder system, but it is a great way to carve out the focus time I need.
Until I got serious about finding ways to carve out space – ways that worked for me where I was in my current environment, it was easy to make excuses. With each excuse, it became more challenging to find the focus I needed to get things done.
You have to find your ways to create your focus space.
4. Guard the Space You Create
Protect the focus space or other stuff will rush in to occupy that space.
My husband and I go dancing on Monday night. I found some free West Coast Swing classes and I thought they offered a great opportunity for us to get back in our dance groove.
It never fails that at some point during the night I’m going to proclaim, “This is your dance space and this is my dance space.” This is usually followed by “spaghetti arms.”
If this means nothing to you then you need to watch Patrick Swazy in Dirty Dancing.
In dance, you have to guard your space with a firm frame (thus, the spaghetti arms declaration). If you don’t guard your space then you can get run over or left behind – neither makes for a successful dancing experience.
When it comes to your focus space, the same need applies. You have to be invested in judicious guarding of your focus space or other things will run over you.
Clearing time for your focus is a lot like clearing that counter next to the door. If you aren’t vigilant about guarding that new, clear space, it just fills up with new miscellaneous stuff.
Guard your focus space – no spaghetti arms allowed.
5. Actually Use Your New Space for Your Focus
Remember, the distractions, detours, and deterrents will all be working to keep you out of your focus space.
At the beginning of April, I set some pretty steep goals. Of course, day one slipped by without anything being accomplished, so it was easy to excuse my lack of effort on day two. I was already behind, so what does it matter?
Even though I had specifically made space to focus on my BIG DREAM goals, I didn’t use the space.
Unused focus space is wasted possibility.
At the beginning of May, I set some more steep goals – even thought I didn’t make all of my goals for April After all, if you don’t aim big then you miss big every time. I started out May about like I had April. Half of the first day was gone before I had finished setting my goals. The difference was my use of the focus space.
Despite having started late, I made the choice to take intentional actions to use the focus space I had available. I got stuff done.
And I woke up on day two even more focused and determined. You have to use the focus space you’re created if you want to fulfill your BIG DREAMS.
Unused focus space is wasted possibility.
– Kathryn
The Importance of Directed Focus
Your focus will determine your movement. Out of focus means spinning in sand. Lack of focus means circles. But directed focus gets it done.
In 2005, I hosted the North Alabama Iris and Daylily Society. People were coming to tour our flower gardens – some of which were only an idea in my head. But I signed up, and they were coming. I started in Feburary, as soon as the ground was thawed enough to dig.
Every morning, I invested an hour in the gardens.
Every afternoon, I invested an hour in doing something for (or in) the gardens.
Every evening, I invested an hour in the gardens.
I had my goal. I had a timeline. I made space for getting it done. I put my head down and did what I had to do to make it happen.
Several hundred people ended up enjoying the results of my efforts. The success of reaching that goal still warms my heart and reminds me that when I set the goal, and a timeline, and I make the space to get it done, and then I do it – I get it done.
When you set your BIG DREAM goals and you direct your focus to those goals then you will bring them to life.
Are you ready to direct your focus to your BIG DREAMS?
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