Distraction: The Silent Business Killer

As I was helping my daughter with her math yesterday, she was thinking about the school play, her upcoming birthday party and playing a game of Sequence with her grandparents. In other words, her mind was on anything but making a chart to plot the coordinates on the graph paper.  The end result was total frustration for her and using up most afternoon doing math rather than having time to play outside.

Are you staring at your computer screen wishing you were outdoors or at the beach? Are you zipping from task to task without finishing any of your goals for the week? Are you feeling internally frustrated that your hard work is not coming through in your business?

In this noisy world of ours, focusing and concentrating are very challenging tasks! It is so tempting to answer email while writing an article or answering the phone whenever it rings. Facebook, Ning and Twitter give us immediate information gratification but they are like a black hole in terms of our time management.

Having the discipline to stay focused on the path is critical to business growth. When we are sidetracked mediocre work results and business stagnates. Mediocre work does not attract new clients, inspire creativity or lead to focused business growth and an internal feeling of satisfaction.

In order to know where you are getting stuck, answer the following questions:

1. Where are you losing focus?

2. What gets you sidetracked?

3. How do you refocus?

4. What good focusing habits do you do now and how can you strengthen those?

Think of your favorite actor before and during an amazing performance in a play or movie. They are striving for excellence and have a laser focus during the performance. I believe Anthony Hopkins in “Silence of The Lambs” as Hannibal Lector is a perfect illustration. He embodied a serial killer with each movement and his focus was palpable. Now, sustaining that intensity is not realistic for hours on end but at the critical points in your day extreme focus may be necessary.

Commit to observing yourself for a few days and if you feel inspired, recording when you are most distracted. Also, pay closest attention to when you are very focused and accomplish a great deal. Plan your work accordingly; whatever requires intense focus such as writing an article needs to be done during the focused time of the day.

Next, challenge yourself to pick 3 things for business growth that happen first in the day before anything else gets done. What about finding a new joint venture partner or co-sponsoring an event with another business? It is exciting because you are visualizing the future for your business and trying something you have never done before. Business growth and stategy won’t get lost in the mix of a busy day when they are done first.

I wish laser focus as your business blossoms,

Lydia