In my recent survey, over half of you said you want to be more confident in your purpose, but you struggle when it comes to figuring out what your purpose is. This is a common problem, because the pace of life and constant streams of information create so much “noise” we lose sight of what really matters. Here are my thoughts on reducing that noise so you can rediscover your focus.
“A lack of clarity causes stress, inaction, a scattered focus, relationship difficulties, confusion on teams.”
Leo Babauta
Symptoms you need to rediscover your focus
- Lack of clarity about your purpose or what matters most
- Lack of motivation
- Inability to make decisions or complete complex tasks
- Feeling like you’re being pulled in different directions
- Not feeling in control of your future
- Feeling overwhelmed by too many options or expectations
Lack of focus is one of the key aspects in a feeling of languishing. If we want to move toward a happier, more satisfying life, we need to regain clarity about what’s important and what’s not. There’s no magic formula for rediscovering your focus, but there are several big factors that you can tackle.
First, consider underlying causes
When I was caring for my mom in her final months, there were days I wondered what had happened to my brain. It didn’t seem to be working like usual. That’s because major stress, such as grief, health challenges, or abuse can seriously affect our ability to focus and think clearly.
If that’s your situation, don’t beat yourself up over it. The first step for you is to work through your challenge and find healing.
Lack of focus can also be the result of underlying health issues such as Lyme disease, Lupus, medication side effects, or hormonal changes from pregnancy or menopause. When these are a factor, give yourself grace, but also realize you may need to be more intentional than ever about keeping your focus.
Rediscovering your focused step one: make time to think
You can’t get clear on your purpose and priorities when you’re in the middle of playing catch up. Our normal everyday lives are filled with too many tasks to accomplish, too much (often conflicting) information, too many choices to make, and too many distractions.
Therefore, the first necessity for rediscovering your focus is to block out a sufficient block of time (an hour, half a day, a whole weekend) where you can give your undivided attention to the task.
Otherwise, it’s like trying to reprioritize your life while playing Whack-A-Mole.
Rediscovering your focus step two: clear mental and emotional “noise”
Anxiety, brooding, monkey mind. These kinds of thinking add to our lack of clarity, keeping us stuck in unproductive thinking.
Another type of noise we face comes from our relationships—the expectations and opinions of others that may be drowning out your own voice and values. For example, the expectations of others, from family members to coworkers to the groups we belong to, such as a church. And if we’re not careful, we may be listening to loudest, most demanding people in our world instead of focusing on our own heart and the voices of those whose opinions actually matter.
Here are some techniques reduce mental and emotional noise so you can think more clearly.
- Write down everything that worries you, stresses you, frightens you, etc. This is not therapeutic, but it may bring to light things that will help you find clarity.
- Write down all your unfinished tasks and the many things you think you should do. Doing this kind of “brain dump” makes some mental space to think more easily.
- Give yourself permission to question the critical voices in your head that keep you from doing what your heart wants to do.
- When you’re feeling angry or upset, you may find it easier to think after you’ve done a physical workout to give vent to emotions.
- Pray. Give God your worries and ask him to guide your thinking.
Rediscovering your focus step three: reduce the physical “noise”
Another factor that affects our ability to stay focused is the physical around us, which is often filled with distractions and reminders of unfinished tasks. Soul-searching and working through priorities is hard work. Our brain will be looking for excuses to think about something else.
When you want to give something your undivided attention, do yourself a favor and eliminate many distractions as possible. To clear space effectively, choose a space and time where you can reduce the physical “noise” as much as possible, so your energy and attention are available.
Here are some key strategies for reducing physical and sensory noise:
- Choose a room that isn’t filled with distractions, such as teetering piles of stuff that remind you of unfinished tasks.
- Put away or turn off all devices, and screens.
- Consider physical distractions that make us uncomfortable, such as temperature, light level, and hunger.
- Consider doing some simple stretches and breathing exercises at the start of your session to get oxygen to the brain and signal your body that it’s time to let go of other things and concentrate.
What sources of noise are distracting you?
I hope this post gave you some simple methods to cut through the noise and begin to rediscover your focus in life. In the next post, I’ll discuss some techniques and questions that will help figure out your purpose.
