I took a road trip with my punkin last weekend. We spent 14 hours total in the car, just the two of us, and somehow we made it home in one piece. Well, in two pieces. Her and me. I mean, but we were each in one piece. (Huh?)
What I’m trying to say is, we didn’t kill each other! Even though we both wanted to. A few times. Like, a lot of times.
Anyway, during one of the calm moments (read: when she was sleeping) I dialed up a recorded conference call from a few days earlier that I hadn’t yet had a chance to listen to.
And it knocked my socks off.
I don’t know if it was how quiet it was in the car, or the fact that I was driving solo down the interstate in the middle of Midwestern farm country, or perhaps I haven’t had a plethora of alone time to just veg and think lately, but I was overwhelmed with the message of the call.
The gist of it was: the time is now.
I had one of those moments where you hear something and immediately start processing it and formulating how you are going to use this newfound knowledge-slash-motivation-slash-determination to better yourself. I was day dreaming while listening and visualizing the results while formulating the plan to get them. I had a specific game plan before I even had the conscious thought of, hey, maybe I should make a plan!
The details of the call don’t matter (this one was specifically about Vemma), or even that it was a call instead of an event or a video or a conversation or a great book.
The point is that I 1) took the time to focus on it, 2) let it sink in, and 3) made a plan of action immediately after, or in my case during, the call.
Lemme expand on those a bit:
1) Discipline. I swear the ability to truly focus on something all comes back to discipline. You have to prioritize. Rearrange. It’s NOT easy to do to sit down and truly focus on only one thing at a time. Ask any working parent. Ask any stay at home parent. Ask any entrepreneur, period. But once you start, as with many things, it’s easy to finish. And you feel fantastic after you’ve truly focused on one thing with all of your attention for a while.
2) Just as important as prioritizing the time to focus singularly on something, is taking a few moments after to, well, stop. To pause. To process what you just did or learned or experienced. If we too quickly move on to the next distraction, we probably didn’t do ourselves much good, am I right? Take a breath. Let your brain cells absorb what they need to.
3) Motivation is temporary. It’s lost within days – hours and minutes even – of happening. (I think there are even studies on that? Right?) If you don’t make a plan to implement whatever new knowledge you gained or inspiration you picked up, you aren’t going to make any progress. You essentially wasted your time. And when we just took all that time to focus and process, what a shame to not follow through and make a game plan.
So that’s what I was thinking about driving up Interstate 35 towards Minneapolis last weekend, a sleeping punkin in the back seat. Focus, breathe, plan. Fun stuff. Simple stuff.
Let’s do this!
Have a fantastic weekend, all.
Hugs,
AS
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I'm an author, marketer, and mommy who loves to read, write, and drink coffee. My husband and I live in suburban Kansas City with our two little girls. This site chronicles my world. Thanks for stopping by!
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