Focus. It’s how we concentrate and get things done.

But it’s hard to focus when we’re worried about how we’re doing. Our minds are constantly switching from what we’re doing to how we’re doing. Are we getting enough done? Do we need to work faster? And can we get the work done?

I’ve had work to do that took every minute. I could barely stop for a break. And I’ve always enjoyed it under certain circumstances. And those circumstances are when I knew I could get the job done. It’s those times that I wasn’t sure if I could get it done that bothered me immensely and made it a terrible job. It wasn’t the work. Or that it was hard work. It was can I do it.

As long as I knew I could do it, it was just a lot of work. Not a lot of stress. Big difference! I can handle a lot of work. A lot of stress just wore me out and made me miserable. A day of hard work just made me tired. A good tired. Good to relax and be done for the day. But a lot of stress? Just wore me out and ruined my attitude and my evening and my sleep. Because I had it to do all over again the next day.

I’m too busy watching myself.

And it didn’t help that I was constantly checking myself. My mind was multi-tasking. Focusing on the work but evaluating myself in the background. Like a multi-tasking computer program, I wasn’t getting all the CPU cycles on what I needed to be working on. And the memory was being used by two different processes. Sometimes the self-checking and fear was getting the lion’s share of my focus.

I’m worried about the outcome of trying to figure out why I’m so obsessed with outcome

I worry so much about outcome. That’s why I’m not as productive as I can be. So I decided to try to figure out why I’m like that. I’ve been thinking about it a lot. But, now I’m worried that I’m not making a lot of progress on that. I’m worried about the outcome of trying to figure out why I’m so obsessed with outcome and what can I do about it. I almost can’t believe this.

I’ve heard people say to increase your focus get somewhere that’s quiet. Wear headphones and listen to soothing music. That doesn’t work with me. I can still hear what’s going on in my head.

Know what I hear? “How’s your progress?”, “You haven’t done that much” and “You have a goal of an hour and you haven’t typed anything in ten minutes. Just sitting there thinking”.

I only fail for a little while – What you’ve accomplished in the short run is not indicative of what you’ll get done it the long run

We want to deliver results but we don’t always have control over those results. The outcome. But we do have control over the process. I’m not saying be happy with the process and don’t worry about the results. Or if you fail you should still be happy because you stuck to the process. Not at all. I have found that if I focus on the process then I only fail for a little while. I was failing the last hour but this hour I’m making a lot of progress. Last hour I couldn’t think of a thing to type but now I’m typing as quickly as I can so I don’t forget the ideas I suddenly have. I was going to take a break but I can’t. I suddenly got in the zone and I want to keep it going. So different than what it was like the last hour. What you’ve accomplished in the short run is not indicative of what you’ll get done it the long run. How you’re doing right now is not a good indicator of how you’ll be doing later in the day. Or even tomorrow.

So just stop worrying and checking your progress. Easy, right?

No! Just easy to say you’ll do it. But if you give it some thought, a lot of thought, maybe you’ll come to realize too that the worry and staring over your own shoulder doesn’t help. It hurts. To really change, it doesn’t take will power. It doesn’t take bucking up and standing up to it and facing your fears head on and staring them down. It takes understanding.  And the more you understand, the more you can believe that things can be different.

Ask yourself repeatedly does this fear help. What is it doing to you. All the positive sayings and quotes and inspirational messages will make you feel good for a little while but they won’t do a lot of good in the long run. You have to figure this out for yourself. You have to convince yourself. Not through quotes and mantras, but through reasoning. Ask yourself, “what makes sense?”. Is it reasonable to believe this? What I’ve been doing, is it working? It takes time and it takes thought. But, it can be done and won’t take too long. The effort pays off. In the long run, you’ll create a new habit that increases your focus and productivity. But, even in the short run, it can help. Even for just brief periods, you’ll be able to do it. Even before it becomes a habit. That’s instant gratification, even for just short periods of time. Give it a minute.

Again, even if just for two minutes or five minutes, it’ll help. You’ll start to see you can do it and get better at it. And the more you do it the easier it’ll get and before too long it’ll become a habit.  But even before it becomes a habit, you’ll enjoy those two or five minutes for now. It takes thought and reasoning.

You need to be where you can explain it to someone else

You can’t just read this post or someone else’s and expect to really change. Think about what’s been said and how it applies to you. That’s fine. But understand what is going on with you. Think about it and think about it some more. Have you been reading self help posts and they don’t work? So you think you need to read more? Or just haven’t found the right one yet that gets you where you want to be? This truth needs to become a part of you. You need to be where you can explain it to someone else. You need to be able to show someone else that this is what can fix the problem. Because you really know it and understand it. I think you already know this. But you need to keep reminding yourself of it. Keep coming back to it.

Many others and myself had said that you need to focus on the process. Don’t worry about the outcome. I’ve told you what I think. But what do you think? That’s what is important.  Trust yourself and remember what you already know.