In a professional development session I recently attended, I heard the facilitator and speaker, Hugh Calver say that “busy” is often just another word for “lazy”. While this statement sounds provocative, as you think about it, you’re likely to realize that there is some truth to it. Looking at your daily habitual patterns, do you have a tendency to fill your time doing what is easiest; that which does not require the time and effort to concentrate? Depending on your life stage, whether you are engaged at work or beyond the workplace in “retirement”, you might, for example, get busy with numerous e-mails or small tasks that are not part of something substantial you may be striving to accomplish. Although these numerous menial tasks may also need to be completed, one should perhaps guard from this kind of busyness being a diversion from the real effort needed to sustain the focus towards something significant that we may want to achieve.
This tendency, to allow ourselves to become unfocused and just fill time with relatively unimportant activities, is increasingly common across all generations. Think for example of the engrained habits of youth to constantly relate through social media while losing sight of the more important things calling for their attention. And beyond the workplace, in the early stage of retirement, some people want to live free of constraints and prefer not to have to make efforts to focus on accomplishing anything in particular. This is understandable because a new retiree may simply want to enjoy a life of effortlessness and ease for a while. But, just like the muscles in the body must be exercised regularly to function well over time, if we don’t use our ability to sustain our focus on something engaging, of value, we are at risk of gradually losing that ability over time. If you find yourself among those who too often drift from one distraction to the next, here are 3 strategies that can help you counter this tendency:
– Block out time for substantial projects. Whether this is a book you want to write, research you need to complete, a report or an article you must write, choose a time frame for it, daily and or weekly and stick with your plan.
– Set up some rewards along the way. By planning for some enjoyable down time, outings, social time or self-care of some sort, you can better motivate yourself to effectively concentrate on what you crave to accomplish. Knowing that this effort will be rewarded by both its results and the time for enjoyment that you are planning in your day will help to keep you motivated and remain focus.
– Keep the big picture in mind. By keeping foremost in mind the projects you want to complete, you will better fuel the motivation to keep protecting the time frames within which you can work on your substantial projects. One way to keep holding such goals in mind could be by setting intentions and monthly themes that include specific actions identified to keep taking your projects forward and through to completion.
This month, through the seminars I will lead for pre-retiring professionals through the Institute of Chartered Accountants, I will provide a process to assist dozens of individuals to navigate the major life transition of retirement in 4 provinces across from coast to coast. These are actually public events that can be attended by any professional, not only accountants. See the events page for more information.
