#70 – How to remain focused?

You’re listening to the Deals on Heels Show with business mentor Lotje Euser episode number 70

Good morning, afternoon, evening – welcome to a new episode of the deels on heels podcast. My name is Lotje Euser and I’m super happy you’re listening today to this episode – the things I want touch base on today are a current topic in my business and I hope you will enjoy my insights and my story

In my last episode I was already sharing about my current journey and how I’m recalibrating to this new level in my business and life. And I feel like I’m more getting to this point that all the puzzle pieces fall into place, which is amazing! But to be honest: I’m still in this process and one of the things that’s a big topic to me right now is how to keep my focus on the right things to build my business.

So for those of you who don’t really know me that well: one of the things I help my coaching clients with is to achieve their goals in business and life. 

Those goals can be everything, from growing to 10k months to 30k months or experiencing more fun in their business, or setting up ways to create multiple income streams. But there’s one thing in particular I help them with and that’s focus.

And the importance of focus came back to me during the last couple of months because I was quite busy. I was really doing all of the things, micro minds, coaching, training, and challenges. And it’s very easy to get distracted by all the things that are happening in your life and are happening in the market, and are happening in business.

Because you can get easily pulled from one thing into the other thing and sometimes: everything seems as equally important right? Especially then it can become very hard to remain your focus. And to keep focused on the things that really matter.

That reaaaally matter. 

I’ve made an episode before, maybe a few years ago already, about time management and prioritizing. It was in Dutch, so If you’re Dutch and you’re struggling with time management then go look at my previous episodes. I think it was my second episode. Really one of the first episodes I created – this one is awesome if you’re strugglin with prioritization but today I want to talk about how to remain focused in your business.

So first I want to emphasize that prioritization is not the same as focus. And I notice that these two topics are so easily mixed up by others.

I see people using these terms in all different contexts, but let me make clear: prioritization and focus are not the same things.

Sometimes we feel our people need to prioritize, and we tend to believe that that will solve their time management issues while in fact they need more focus. 

Especially managers can mix these things up. They talk about prioritization while their team actually needs something completely different and that’s focus.

And I can speak from my own experience. When I worked for this IT company, I often felt overwhelmed by all the things that needed to be done. My manager told me: just prioritize, use Eisenhower’s matrix and all of that. But my main problem was: I could not focus on getting things done that were the most important.

And that was because I didn’t know how to focus, or how to build this system for myself that allowed me to work in a very focused way.

So what If the difference between prioritization and focus?

Prioritizing is all about choosing what needs to be done first and decide what’s most important, while focus is all about not distracting yourself, directing your attention and stick to it – no matter what happens.

And when we get really busy, and our schedules are filled to the top, then it can be super challenging to stay focused. Because maybe all kinds of things come between your what you want to accomplish. 

Especially in this world where we are always available to everyone – yeah focus is like one of the biggest challenges.

I see this happen with clients, they tend to get distracted easily and don’t keep their focus on the things that are the most important.

For example: they want to sell their 1-1 program, an opportunity arises, they get this new inspiration and they launch a small program instead. Totally forgetting about their goal to sell their biggest offer.

Or they want to stay consistent in their online presence, they feel not inspired at all and they can’t hold their commitment.

They want to write this website content, but then get distracted by a customer call. Or another email. You name it – and the focus is gone.

Or they want to give these masterclasses, then nobody signs up and then they feel as a failure and they give up.

Focus to me means that you choose to stay committed, no matter what happens. To stay true to your goal. And especially when things get tough, when you notice that it’s not all going as planned – yeah then it’s super challenging to keep focused on your initial goal.

But that doesn’t mean that for example, if you have this goal to get to one million this year in revenue – that you have to keep doing what you’re doing. That you need to stay focused on doing the activities – although they don’t seem to work.

That’s not what I mean.

To me that’s a waste of time, money and energy.

You can stay focused on achieving your goal, while trying out different tactics. As long as all the roads lead to that goal that you’ve set. 

So how can you stay focused, while also keep checking what’s working and what’s not working?

I think that writing down that goal and keep that in the center of your mind is one of the most important things.

I’ve wrote down my goal like super BIG on my vision board and on my phone. So everytime I see my phone or that board – I’m reminded to remain focused on that.

I’m also somebody who can get easily distracted by all the opportunities that arise. Or I think that I got this fantastic idea of a new product and it needs to happen right now, so my focus on my real goal disappears. 

And I think if you’re currently listening, you can relate to this as well right? We all get distracted – also in our personal lives. F.e. we want to live very healthy, and we’re focused on eating right and then our friend invites as to dinner and before you know it you’re distracted and forgetting all about your health goal.

So what really helps here is to make your goal you want to focus on, a part of your identity. And your business identity if you’re an entrepreneur. From now on: you’re the woman or man who achieves X goal within X time.

Or from now on you are that person who lives healthy. Or from now on you’re that person that no longer works more than 8 hours a day. Or from now on you’re this entrepreneur who sells on a daily basis. Or from now on you’re this parent who separates his or her personal life from her business life.

Or from now on you’re the CEO who’s not micro managing the things you’ve hired people for. So you decide: I’m the CEO who focuses on high-level view and strategy only. 

In this way you’re identifying your goal with who you are.

So it only feels natural from this point to only focus on making that happen, because there is no other way. It’s part of who you are now. There’s like no reason to get distracted – because this is who you are from now on.

But also important is to realize that this process of embodying who this person is and to keep focused, that it’s about trial and error.

We can never grow without making mistakes, and realizing that we have drifted away from our goals and that we should refocus again.

And that’s what I help my clients with the most. I remind them of what they want to achieve when they ask me: should I do this? Should I do that? 

I help them to keep focused on their initial plan and help them to take new actions that will lead them back to keep the focus in place.

Also when you’re working with OKR’s, I see a lot of companies that are doing all the things because they feel it’s all important – and lose their focus in that process.

But what is really important to focus on now? And how can you set up systems that will allow you to keep focused?

Often it’s these little things like: only checking your mailbox twice a day. Or putting your phone away. Or not scroll endlessly through social media. Or decide: this is what I want to get done today and make that your goal and reject all other things that are happening in the meantime.

Will it be difficult? For sure – our main distractions have become a habit in our lives. And creating new habits requires a lot of effort. Not only on a mental level but also on an energetic level. Because your subconcious wants to convince you to stay true to your old patterns.

So things really need to change here, in order to stay more focused.

And yes you will need to telll people “no” more often and that might give you this uncomfortable feeling in order to keep your focus in the right place. And yes it is difficult to keep focused on selling your biggest offers, when you feel like it’s not happening fast enough.

But once you’ve learned how to recognize what distracts you the most, what things make you go off the path you’re walking, and you learn to recognize this faster – the easier it will get to redirect yourself and to stay true to what you want to achieve.

So I really hope this episode will help you to stay more focused and please let me know what your main challenges are when it comes to focus and what you think of this episode. Don’t hesitate to send me a dm on LinkedIn or instagram.

And if you really want to work on achieving your goals this year with a clear and focused mind, then just send me a message and let’s have a chat about how I can help you with this. 

And for now I wish you an amazing week!