Choosing Focus to Gain an Inner Edge

Hair on Fire!

Life is pretty crazy right now. Working 40 hours and being a mom of two and wife of one is more than enough for most people. However, I like to ride with my hair on fire, so I added graduate school (MBA complete December 2011) and buying new house to top it all off.

Lately there is so much happening at once, I find myself becoming fragmented. It all seems so important that I don’t know where to start. Where do I focus my attention? What priorities should I have? I want to find joy in life, but where is the joy and how do I uncover it? How do I slow it all down?

Take a deep Bbreath

Today I practiced a visualization technique learned through The Inner Edge Book Club in order to understand my personal vision. For 20 minutes, I laid down on my bed, closed my eyes and envisioned an ideal future. Simply getting out of my head for 20 minutes was a feat in itself. I gained great insight through this visualization; some already known, some not yet discovered.

What do I want? What do I see?

Seems like straightforward enough questions. The problem is that I am unsure of my abilities and afraid of the unknown. I yearn to feel successful and that I am living up to my potential rather than skating through life.

In the vision, I was reposing in a comfortable office that had my personal stamp on it. There was a window view, and customers/clients who sought me out there. Whatever it was that I offered, I was considered a confident field expert  who provided something of value.

What I know about me:

1.  I have great people skills that I need to leverage
2.  I get to the story and understand what others want
3. I see the big picture in how things work and come together
4. I love interacting with people and don’t want to work alone

 OK, what now?

Next week’s Book Club discusses choosing areas of focus and priorities. Once I am better able to define what I want to achieve, I will be able to find a path to get there. So far it is slow going for me in completing the vision, but I find myself getting closer each day.

One thing I realized it is OK not to know exactly what I want right now. I am learning the art of meaningful action; when to say yes or no. In mapping out the future, I need to simplify things and weed out noise, which is hard to do when a 5-month old puppy is destroying things while I type.

Lesson learned learning: there will always be noise

With inevitable noise, comes choices as to how it affects me. Items such as school, work, kids, puppy, the new Twilight movie, continue no matter what. Will any of them ultimately affect the goal for success? The objective is to learn which ones will and quiet down the rest.

For now, my focus is on finishing the semester and finally graduating. After graduation it will be time to review and refine my vision of success. By taking one thing off the list, it will become more manageable. The rest will have to wait for now.

 

Related articles

• an overwhelming feeling of dread (miriamgomberg.wordpress.com)
• Why did you study MBA (wiki.answers.com)
• Should You Go to Graduate School? (onlinecollege.org)