How To Focus On Yourself

Introduction

There are times when we all feel like we can’t focus on the right things. It could be because of our work, family or personal life, and it can prevent us from doing well in any aspect of our lives. But there is a way to make sure that you are focused easily on something specific without having your mind wander off somewhere else: focusing on yourself.

The best thing we can do for the people we care about is take care of ourselves first. Why? Because when you take care of yourself, you not only set a great example for those around you, but you're also mentally prepared to help others because you're not distracted thinking about your own issues.

In this blog we're going to show you how you can focus on yourself, so you can be a better person, co-worker, co-student, friend, family member and ultimately a better version of yourself.

5 simple steps to help you focus on yourself and take control of your life

1. Decide what about yourself you want to focus on.
2. Decide why you want to focus on it.
3. Create a success plan and schedule time for it.
4. Execute your plan.
5. Make it a habit.

Let's break each step down, so you can focus on yourself and optimize your life.

#1. Decide what about yourself you want to focus on.

When you're deciding what about yourself to focus on, it's important to make sure that your goal is realistic. If you want to become a doctor by the time you're 30 but in reality, don't even know how to boil an egg yet, then perhaps becoming a doctor isn't the best thing for you right now.

Also make sure that whatever aspect of yourself that you are focusing on is something within your control. We cannot change things that we do not control, so it's important to choose things in your locus of control. For example, you could choose to improve your habits, communication style, personality and daily actions. Pick areas of your life that need work and where you can take action toward improving, one day at a time.

#2 Decide why you want to focus on it.

Deciding why you want to focus on a specific area of your life will help keep your attention on the right things. When you're stuck, or feeling discouraged, asking yourself these questions can help you remember what's important:

• Why do I want to focus on this?
• How will this benefit me?
• How will this help me achieve my goals?
• Will this improve my life in some way?
• Will this make me feel better about myself?

Knowing why you want to focus on yourself is critically important. Make sure you write down your 'why'. When you're feeling unmotivated or distracted, reread your 'why' and get back on your mission to focus on yourself to improve your life.

#3 Create a success plan and schedule time for it.

Now that you know the what and the why, it's time to create a success plan. This can be done by writing down your goals and making a plan to achieve them. Once you've done that, break the goals down into smaller goals. Order your goals based on what's most important to you. After that, it's time to schedule.

Next, schedule time for your self-focus. I’m going to say this again: schedule it. Don’t let it be an afterthought. Don’t let it be a second priority, either; you need to make sure that self-focus gets done before other things. That means scheduling a chunk of time for yourself in advance, and then making sure you stick with that commitment so that your self-focus doesn’t become an afterthought or something you squeeze into free moments here and there throughout the day (which will probably end up being too little).

To avoid feeling overwhelmed by all the things we have going on in our lives—work, relationships, family obligations—we often feel compelled to cram our personal needs into whatever small pockets of time we can find between taking care of others and doing things we enjoy. This may work sometimes but as soon as life gets busy again (and it always does), those “pockets” are gone and yet another important area of your life languishes while being ignored due to lack of focus and attention from yourself. Always make time for yourself.

#4 Execute your plan.

All the hard work is already done, now it's time to execute your self-focus plan. When you're trying to focus on yourself, it's easy to get distracted by all the things that could be done. But if you try to do too many things at once, it actually becomes more difficult for your brain to concentrate on any one thing. Focus on just the one thing you've planned to improve, tackle it and move on to the next thing.

#5 Make it a habit.

The power of habits is that it takes no effort to execute your self-focus routine after you've implemented it. Studies show it takes 21 days or more to form a habit. Once your self-focus habit forms, you won't have to think about it and can run on autopilot. Until your habit forms keep planning, scheduling and executing your self-focus routine. Soon it will be a natural part of your life, and so will all the benefits that come with focusing on yourself.

Conclusion

We hope that this article gave you a great strategy to help you focus on yourself and improve your life. If you're looking for more life and time management tips, feel free to check out our other blogs.