goals

How to focus your energy and attention for an intentional 2021

Happy 2021 Everyone!

If you haven't done so already, I invite you to start the year off strong with figuring out what you want to focus on for your life.

We get so busy with tons of demands on us, and for the pro-personal development and high achievement types, we set even MORE demands on ourselves to do ALL THE THINGS.

Some of us may even have "shiny object syndrome" (I'm #guilty) where instead of really focusing on what we decided we should prioritize, we get sucked into doing or exploring something new and shiny. This phenomenon is due to your brain getting a dopamine hit when you do or try something new. So it's like you're chasing that "high", where it may not be helping you grow or achieve in the direction you actually want to because you've scattered your energy, time, and attention.

So for all you who aspire to live intentionally, here is an exercise I propose to help you lead an intentional year and life!

I call it the Combo Clarity Cards Pyramid + Do Not Do List (or CCPDNDL for short 😅)

Why habits fail Part 2/2

Click here to listen to this newsletter as a PODCAST [10:18]

In the last newsletter, we learned 3 reasons why people fail at their habits:

1. They focus too much on motivation.
2. They make the habit too hard for themselves.
3. They don't design their environment.

Today’s newsletter will focus on 3 more factors.

4. They didn’t have a plan B or contingency plan.

Let’s face it, even when you have designed a way to perfectly execute your habits, life happens. What may seem like a minor hiccup can throw your habit formation off balance.

One example is from Noella* (*named changed) who planned to do her 7 minutes of exercise after she has her first cup of coffee in the morning. Seems simple right?

Well, Noella has a 2-year old who wakes up at seemingly random times throughout the week. Sometimes he wakes up a lot after Noella, other time he wakes up right when Noella wakes up, and when this happens, Noella's morning habit routine gets thrown off balance, and she ends up not even doing the 7 minutes of exercise.

A way around this is to have a Plan B in place in case of an obstacle.

Should you read a book or binge on Netflix?

Should you read a book or binge on Netflix?

Click here to listen to this newsletter as a PODCAST [7:59]

Have you ever felt this inner struggle? The better angels of our nature wants us to do good, productive things like reading a book (or meal prep for the week), but then we end up binging on Netflix (or indulging in other guilty pleasures) instead?

Well, you’re not alone! As human beings, we are goal-directed systems*, and (un)fortunately, we have many and often conflicting goals.

  • Goals: internal representations of our desired states. Desired states can be for a certain outcome, event to happen, or process to take place.

  • *Goal-directed systems are also known as cybernetic systems, if you wanna get all fancy 🤓

My real life example of conflicting goals I’ve experienced this week are the goals of:

  1. spending time to work on my business vs

  2. enjoying the short Canadian summer by spending time outdoors with friends.

I ended up only working 2/7 days this week, and although I feel personally fulfilled from all the sunshine, exercise, and social interactions, I also feel guilt from not having done as much work as I wanted on my business.

To further complicate the situation, there are both conscious and unconscious goals vying for your attention, action, and internal resources.