My Struggle With Focus and a Plan For Results

One of the benefits of blogging is that it gives me the opportunity to learn. While I love to share the knowledge I have about running, strength training, and nutrition, writing about these topics gives me the chance to dive deeper into my understanding, and do additional research.

I write to provide value to you, but it helps me too, by reinforcing, solidifying, and growing my knowledge base. They say the best way to learn is to teach, so I credit blogging for my personal growth as a personal trainer and running coach.

I love to write about my struggles too. For one, It shows I am not pretending to be some perfect all-knowing guru who has all the answers (I’m not). It proves I am a real person who struggles (just like you!), and writing helps me mentally sort out the tangled web of thoughts that are bouncing around in my head. In my experience, the simple act of writing provides me with clarity that can’t be reproduced by thinking or talking it out.

Focus has been my biggest struggle lately. I have so many projects bouncing around in my mind that I struggle to focus on one and end up scrolling on Instagram instead and getting none of them done. When I sit down to focus on a task, I am easily distracted. Damn you social media for ruining my attention span. (It’s easy to place blame, but I have to take responsibility for letting social media destroy my attention span.)

FIGHTING FOR MY ATTENTION:

I bought an SEO (search engine optimization) course to learn how to drive more traffic to my blog from Google searches. So far the curriculum is excellent, but I haven’t gotten very far in the course yet. My ultimate goal is to grow this blog to a larger income source and improved SEO is a step towards that goal.

I bought another SEO course (this one at a very low price) geared explicitly for SEO for bloggers on the Squarespace platform. I’ve never even cracked it open.

I bought another course called Location Rebel that touches on SEO (catching a theme) but also on copywriting, and online business — essentially how to earn a living online with writing.

Speaking of copywriting, I bought a course on that too. When I said my new year’s resolution is to complete all the classes in 2019 that I purchased in 2018, I wasn’t joking.

Yikes!

My real new year’s resolution is not to buy any more courses until I complete the ones I already bought. I wrote this week about Duct Taping your Fitness Problems, and I think online courses are my way of duct taping my goals. Buying courses that promise big results makes me feel like I am moving forward, but I’m not accomplishing anything unless I actually do the work.

BUT WAIT…THERE’S MORE!

I am learning the Pose Method of running. Don’t worry, there’s not an online course for this one (well, there is, but I didn’t by it). I am using books an online videos to start my practice. I have signed up an in-person coaching certification on this method at the end of the year which I hope will transform my coaching business, so this is important to me.

I am taking a deep dive into corrective exercise. It was touched on briefly in my personal training certifications, but I am learning with some online sources and hope to bring more blog posts about exercises that can help with the muscles imbalances that lead to pain and injury.

Remember when I was talking about writing a book? Yeah, that’s still on my mind. I started it a long time ago and never got anywhere. I struggle with settling on a topic and making it unique.

I also want to work on creating an online course, but I am a little scattered about the topic. I’m not great on video, and if I offer a program for sale, It needs to be professional and polished — so that has been holding me back. Any ideas? What do you want to learn?

My weekly goal is to publish three blog post per week. Blogging comes reasonably easy, but it takes up the bulk of my free time. While I love blogging, I am considering stepping back to once or twice a week to open up more space for other projects. My biggest fear is that I will blog less, but I will squander that free time and not become more productive in other areas.

I have in-person and online clients that I work with on a weekly basis and I struggle to decide if I keep my client base the same and focus my energies on other income streams or if I work to grow my client base, which would provide more immediate income, but eat up available time to work on other projects.

My nutrition certification expires in April. I don’t necessarily need to recertify, but the recertification is free, I just need to take a test again, which will require study time.

There are more, but these are the ones that are weighing most on my mind,

HOW’S THAT WORKING FOR YOU?

One thing I know is that thinking about all my goals at once hasn’t gotten me anywhere. When we are not reaching our goals, the first question to ask is, how’s that working for you? What I am doing: buying courses, not staying focused, and not doing the deep work is not working. If what you are currently doing is not bringing the results you desire, the next question to ask is why not?

WHY NOT?

I like to say free time is holding me back, but I know it’s a cop-out. If you look at my weekly screen time usage on my phone, you’d see I have plenty of time; I am just not using it effectively. So I ask more questions.

HOW CAN I USE MY TIME MORE EFFECTIVELY?

I can recognize time wasters and refocus on more productive activities. A trainer friend gave me a great idea. She said she makes lists of tasks and sorts them by the time it takes to complete. So if she has 15 minutes of spare time between clients or a lunch break, she can consult her list of tasks that take 15 minutes.

Running drills take 5 minutes.

Responding to a HARO inquiry takes 15 minutes

Watching course videos takes 30 minutes.

Writing a blog posts takes two to three hours

Instead of feeling like there isn’t enough time to get everything done, I can make the most of my free time by matching tasks to the time available. Brilliant, right?

NARROW FOCUS

I need to focus on one or two goals at a time. Too many goals are overwhelming, and I don’t do anything. I am going to choose the SEO course and the Pose Method of running for now. The other goals on my list can wait until I can cross these first two off my list, or at least get to a point when they are running on autopilot.

BREAK GOALS INTO DAILY TASKS

I need to break down my big goals into smaller tasks and schedule them on my calendar. What can I do today that will bring me closer to crossing my goals off this list?

Complete one lesson a day in my SEO course at least five days a week. Work on it between 7 and 8 PM on weeknights, and more if time permits on the weekend.

Do running drills and short practice runs (1-2 miles) daily. Work on these before my client appointments in the evenings and on the weekends.

SET PROCESS GOALS

I will challenge myself to do something every single day to work towards my goals, even if it is just 15 or 20 minutes at a time. I will mark an X on my calendar when I complete progress towards my goals and attempt not to miss any days.

OVERCOME RESISTANCE

Accept the fact that any change will come with resistance. If I know and expect it, I can have to plan in place to deal with it when it arrives. I often feel too tired or too scattered to work on personal projects at home after a long day at work. Knowing that this is a familiar feeling, how can I combat it?

A good plan is to commit to putting in at least 10 minutes of work. This strategy works because often the hardest part is getting started. I feel a resistance to starting, but once I get going, I am fine (this works for exercise too).

My thoughts are already clearer. Often just stating our problem, asking deeper questions and thinking through the possible actions and solutions can reveal that we already had the answers and help provide a clear path to achieving our goals.

Writing about them on a public forum helps create accountability. I can’t ask you to be accountable for your health and fitness goals if I am not accountable for my personal goals.

How can you take this process and write out a plan to achieve your goals?

Let’s do it!

Coach Lea

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