TERRI: How do you stay focused with so many distractions? Now,
That's a broad question because staying focused can mean
several things. So I thought I would break it apart into the
three areas of focus that have helped me the most.
TERRI: Hey, I'm Terri Savelle Foy, your
cheerleader dreams. Thank you for joining
me. You know, I posted something on Instagram recently
asking if we could just sit down and talk. What is the
one question you'd want me to answer? Well, based on the top
questions I received, this one had to do with focus. The
question was how do you stay focused with so many
distractions? Now that's a broad question because staying focused
can mean several things. So I thought I would break it apart
into the three areas of focus that have helped me the most. So
number one is focus with my habits. Number two is focused
with my time, and three is focus on my dreams. So, I'll start
with the first one, which is how do you stay focused with your
habits? Well, my answer is be very protective of your
mornings. The morning hours. You know, I learned that successful
people are proactive about their day, not reactive. In other
words, they take care of themselves first thing in the
morning before they attend to anyone around them. And you've
probably heard me share like about the flight attendant, you
know when you get on an airplane and they always say, put your
oxygen mask on first before you attend to anyone around you,
even your small children. Well it's the same with your daily
agenda. Once you've invested in yourself first thing in the
morning, then you're well prepared to invest in people
around you, even your small children. And the truth is
morning rituals can change your entire life and lead you to
success. I'm absolutely convinced, you know, that's
exactly what happened in my life. Anytime someone asked me,
you know, Terri, how did your life change so drastically? I
always respond with, I changed my routine and it changed my
whole life and I'm referring to my morning routine. See, I made
a decision to just get up a little bit earlier than normal,
like 30 minutes, you know, to go for a walk and spend time with
God. Then that led to an hour then two hours. So I could also
journal and read and listen to motivational messages. Just
investing in myself first thing in the morning. Well, I began
noticing drastic changes in my thinking, my body, my dreams, my
intellect, and that's when I realized the secret of your
future is hidden in your daily routine. In fact, you know, John
Acob says, um, that the only way he could be consistent in his
personal growth, you know, in addition to work in a full time
job, raising a family with his wife, he said, the only way I
could do that was being selfish at five o'clock in the morning.
He said, he began this discipline of just getting up at
the crack of dawn to read, to listen to messages, to pray, to
journal, to write. He said, it's interesting since I began this,
not one time has my wife complained that I wasn't
spending time with her at five o'clock in the morning. He said,
not one time has. My daughter asked me to ride bikes with her
at five o'clock in the morning. He said, that's your time to
focus on you, your personal development. In other words, own
your mornings. So see, I had to understand that if the idea of
setting your alarm 30 minutes earlier sounds horrible, then I
may not be ready to get out of a Rut or go above average to live
my dreams. In fact, John Abob says, if your dream isn't worth
30 minutes of your time, you've either got the wrong dream or
you're just pretending to have one. We'll see. That's the
realization I had to come to if I was ever going to change my
life. In fact, I heard someone define the word "poor" as
passing over opportunities repeatedly. Think about that and
you might go, Terry, that's just it. I haven't had any
opportunities, but here's the argument. Yes you do. Yes, I do.
Every morning at five o'clock or six o'clock or seven o'clock
whatever time for you, you have an opportunity to get up and
invest in your future. So I recommend starting with the hour
power, like Tony Robbins calls it, 20 minutes in prayer, 20
minutes of exercise in 20 minutes of reading. Start with
that. You have to one year that's 365 hours of personal
growth. Guard your morning routine diligently. Don't let
anything prevent you from getting up and investing in you.
That's how you stay focused. Number two, how do you stay
focused with your time? Well, my answer to that is always use a
planner and I've got my little iPad right here. Always use a
planner and map your time. Now when you start mapping your
time, you will be shocked at how much time is wasted each day
without even realizing it. You know, they say the average
American is watching over four hours of TV a day. It's like
four to six hours. So that's over one full day a week. If
seven times four is 28 that's one full day a week sitting in
front of a TV set. Or as I like to say, watching other people
live their dreams. So I had to ask myself, is it getting me
closer to my goals? No. Watching other people fall in love, lose
weight, start businesses, travel the world. That's not helping me
at all. So here's a few tips to help you stay focused throughout
the day. Number one is use one planner or one calendar, see
focus is the number one key ingredient to achieving your
dreams and goals. Well, in order to get focused, you need to get
organized. Well, I learned years ago to document every single
thing in one consistent planner. You have one life you need one
planner. Number two is write everything down. Don't rely on
memory alone. In other words, making a to do list at the
beginning of every day or week can make you feel more focused
and motivated to continue your work. Now if you make a list of
all the things you have to do, no matter how small, you're
going to feel more accomplished when you check those items off
your list and move on to the next one. Plus, our flesh loves
check marks number three practice what I call the Sunday
night strategy. Now, honestly, you can do this any day of the
week, but I always plan my entire week out on Sunday night
and it gives me an overview of exactly what I need to
accomplish and how packed my schedule is. I can see
immediately if I have time for any lunch appointments or doctor
visits or play time or errands or dinner with friends and see
this just set you up to succeed. Having your week completely
thought out and organized. You're no longer just going to
wake up and wonder what the day brings. No, you bring it, you
arise Monday morning with a vision, a plan ready to succeed
on purpose and just on the side note, personally, I always make
two columns. My business goals and my personal goals just for
the week I began listing every single thing I can think of
personally, like pay bills, sort laundry, call the dentist, get
the car washed, whatever it is. It doesn't have to be in
chronological order of when you're going to take action. It
just needs to be thought out and written. After I list everything
personally. Then I do the same thing with my business goals.
And you know what? There's hardly a day that I don't
achieve what I set out to do because it's thoroughly planned.
And here's the thing, what gets scheduled gets done. Now maybe
going super fast and so at the end I'm going to show you how to
download my notes from today's podcast so you can re-read this
and apply it to your life. So I'll just keep going. And then
at the end you can download this, but number four is plan
each day, the night before. See, In addition to the Sunday
night strategy, you need to have an every night strategy where
you never go to bed without mapping out the next day. You
simply go down your list and goals for the week and assign a
day to each task. So wash the car Tuesday after work, you
know, pay the bills Sunday night. So you just assign a day.
Number five of this is time yourself. Now this is a two step
process. You have to determine how long each task takes. And
when I began to learn this, it changed everything. See, after
you see your daily schedule, you need to know approximately how
much time is required in order to be realistic about your to do
list. See, many times we, I we under calculate the time needed
and we ended up frustrated with how few of our goals were
achieved that day. Like I used to make a list of 87 things to
do and then I only did 19, 19 that's a lot. But I was
frustrated and mad at myself and feeling unproductive. Why?
Because my list was completely unrealistic. I thought I could
write an article in two hours, but once I started timing
myself, it was more like four hours or more, or I thought a
phone call would be like 10 minutes. It was more like 30
minutes. See, when I first began to apply this principle of just
calculating how long each task takes, it is tedious at first,
but after a while I began to catch on and it enabled me to
make my daily to do list in a practical and possible way. Now
this includes the time it takes to get ready each day, the time
to commute, the time to prepare dinner. And you may dread this
in the beginning, but trust me, it's gonna lead to an extremely
productive life. The second part of this is determine how much
time you need to stay focused on a task. You know, deadlines are
motivating even 30 minute ones. And because we live in such a
distraction filled society, it's a challenge to stay focused on
one task, even for half an hour without checking Facebook or
answering a test text or you know, looking at photos on
Instagram. Well, you need deadlines to stay focused. So
give yourself 30 minutes to work on a certain task with no
distractions. That means you don't get up. You don't check
Instagram, you don't go to the restroom, you don't even look at
your phone. You stay focused for 30 minutes. Then when that 30
minutes goes by, check your phone, get on social media, go
the restroom, grab a bite to eat, and then do it again. Set
the timer for 30 minutes and get productive until you can build
up to 60 minutes with no distractions, with the ultimate
goal of being 90 minutes uninterrupted. You know they've
proven this in the business world. If you can go 90 minutes,
your productivity will quadruple. So that's my, that's
my clues on that. And the third thing I wanted to share on the
topic of being focused is how do you stay focused on your dreams?
My answer to this is success is determined by what you say no
to. This is not easy and I'm telling you even I struggle with
this right now, but focus, you know it's the opposite of being
distracted. When we have too many ideas and opportunities, we
lose our focus and we ended up accomplishing nothing. You know
when Warren Buffet, who's worth $50 billion was asked to boil
his key to success down to one single principle, this was his
shocking response. He said, for every 100 great opportunities
that are brought to me, he said, I say no 99 times. Think about
that. He attributes his unprecedented success to his
ability to say no or you could say to stay focused. You know,
Darren Hardy asked the late Steve Jobs, he said, what are
you most proud of? You know, in terms of breakthrough products
that you and apple have built. You know, Steve Jobs said, he
said, I am as proud of what we don't do as I am of what we do.
He went on to say deciding what not to do is as important as
deciding what to do. And that statement is true for companies.
Entrepreneurs, stay at home moms, authors, pastors, teachers,
real estate agents. Focus is just as much about saying no as
it is to saying yes. So what will you start saying no to in
order to achieve your most important goals this year? If
you enjoyed this podcast today and you think I was going way
too fast, I would love for you to get my notes. If you'd like
to know a little more on how I stay focused and how you came to
you, you can actually download my podcast notes today by
clicking the link, below, or go to terri.com/stayfocused. And
don't forget, follow me on Instagram. Facebook and Twitter.
And if this video spoke to you share it with a friend, because
that's where you're going to start getting closer and closer
to your goals is when your closest friends are on the same
path as you. So share it with somebody that you admire,
that you want to achieve your goals with. And Hey,
thank you for watching and remember, I'm
cheering you on to live your dreams.