One of the most important qualities a person can have is the ability to focus. Focus on your family, focus on your work, focus on your training. Anyone can focus on one thing and complete it - I can focus on an upcoming certification exam and pass, my wife can focus on her figure competitions and become a pro, and my mom can train to finish a half-marathon, if she wants it. But, if all we had to do in life was to focus on one thing, we could be pretty successful at it.
The only problem is in life we don't have just one thing to focus on. We have multiple, if not hundreds of them.I can focus on an upcoming exam, but that's only after focusing for 10 hours at work and after focusing on my workout for 2 hours. My wife can focus on her workouts but only after focusing on her job and me :) It takes a special person to be able to focus 100% on multiple things.
My wife is one of those "special" people. She will go to work, focus 100% of her time and effort on the job at hand, and then to her workout and re-focus her mind and body so it is 100% on the WOD. Then when she comes home at night, she can re-focus once again 100% on the family. The only way we have gotten this to work for her is through proper scheduling. She literally has to write down her work schedule for the week, plan her workouts around her work schedule, and plan her meals around both of those.
Scheduling is important not just for planning workouts, but for life.Scheduling what you have to complete at work keeps you focused throughout the day; scheduling what you want to do in a workout keeps you focused and efficient in the gym; scheduling your meals keeps your energy high and metabolism up so you never have that "crash."
By scheduling out her day, no task will become too overwhelming. If she were to look at the calendar and say "in 6 weeks I have to be in the best shape of my life to compete for a pro card" - which happened to her the other day - she would become very overwhelmed. Fear and doubt would creep in to the mind and focus is lost. However, we sit down and get her to write out her basic plan and schedule, so she can see things are not as overwhelming as originally imagined.
Scheduling allows us to focus on little goals, which ultimately lead us to the bigger goals.She can focus on each week, each day, each hour and complete "little" goals that give her confidence and keeps her focused. Then when the big day arrives, she'll know that all of those "little" goals got her prepared for this "big" goal - competing for the pros.
The same can be said about training for a marathon, triathlon, body building, losing weight, even an exam. Instead of "I have to lose x amount of pounds in 3 months" break it up into smaller goals. The visual now becomes, "I will eat healthier tomorrow by doing this" or "I will do 30 minutes of cardio". Then when you complete that goal move on to another, and another, until finally you are where you want to be - your ultimate goal. When studying for the CPA exam I would say to myself, "Today I will get through 15 pages of this book." Once I completed that I would say "Today I will get through 15 more pages." By keeping my mind focused on these little goals I was able to completely focus and ultimately pass the exams.
Along the way there will be distractions that try to disrupt your focus. Do not let this happen! Stay focused on your goals, not the negative distractions. Stay on course and in the end you will be a happy camper :)
It doesn't matter what others think - it is YOUR goal to obtain and no one else's.As an endurance athlete and half-ironman finisher, people think I am crazy to pay $250 to enter a triathlon and put my body throuogh 5 hours of pain. But it's what I love to do and what I want to accomplish. No one can tell me differently.
If ever you have a moment of doubt, just watch the greatest basketball player ever to walk this earth and be inspired by the focus and determination displayed in this clip:
Now THAT is focus! Go out there and get that goal!!
