Too many things to work on- help focusing?

[Lanigan]

I recently found this site and I immediately noticed how much I wanted to grow in many different ways. Some examples of both habits and goals I want to work towards include: be friendlier, healthier, increase my reading speed, start developing a business (passive stream of income), look for an internship for the summer, improve time management, and stay energized. I get passionate easily and so all of these interests tug equally at my attention and I've noticed myself getting exhausted just finding a place to start in on the personal development. One thing that might contribute to it is that I tend to be a fiend for efficiency. So, I try and do everything at once because I want to reap the benefits of all of the improvements as soon as possible.

Any suggestions?

Hope everyone had a great holiday!

Lanigan

[norbert]

From "Ready for Anything" by author David Allen:

Part III: Create Structures That Work or: It's Hard to Stay on Track Without Rails.

We don't feel constrained by the limitations that really work for us. We're grateful for the lines down the middle of the road--they give us the freedom to get places fast with a minimum of stress and risk. Effective forms don't take space--they create it. At times, tightening up our systems is what's needed to release new levels of output and expression.

I think you'd greatly benefit from his books.

I used to suggest everybody to read "Ready for Anything" (2003) first, "Getting Things Done" (2001) second. GTD is about how to transform personal overwhelm and stress into stress-free productivity, Ready for Anything is about the why.

[Christian223]

Dont ever forget to have your goals at hand (written, easy to see), and also visualize and do affirmations all days, i forgot to do this and i reached a point where i simply forgot my goals, got overwhelmed by them, and stoped doing the things i should do to reach them, maintain your motivation high, all days, all this is really important, at least in my experience.

First i think its best to get a schedule in where you can decide a rutine to your activities that will help you reach your goals, all activities will have a begining and an end, and then maintain this schedule all days, this will require some discipline, thats where affirmations and visualization are usefull, the more desire you have, the less discipline you need.

What will you do the be healthier?, what can you do to be frendlier?, what can you do to increase you reading speed?, what can you do to start a business?, etc, i think that getting the answers will take some time and reasearch on each subject, i recommend you to leave some time each day specially reserved for personal development, in wich you will dedicate your time for find this answers, start with the most important and continue with the less important ones, and then youll have a plan

I hope that helps, good luck!.

[Lanigan]

Thank you both for some great suggestions.

Norbert, I am familiar with GTD. I have read the book and went to a seminar that David taught a couple years ago. I actually have a copy of the "stuff, "in," what is it?, is it actionable?" diagram of dealing with things on my wall next to my desk. I'll try using that again, it's been a couple years. To address the Ready for Anything suggestion, I like that a lot. I have the book but never read it. I will pick it up today and read section III to understand how Allen's concepts of structures are used and then draft some structures that might work in accomplishing my goals. I will try to post those today or tomorrow for review, comments, etc. Thank you Norbert.

Christian, it seems like you've been where I am right now and I think the advice you've given will be helpful. In reading your post I immediately got the idea of taking the structures Norbert suggested using and implementing them with some form of hand written mission statement for each that I can keep in my wallet for review before or in any given situation. I will try to post those with the structures I come up with after reading part III of Ready for Anything. Thank you Christian.

Lanigan

[Stephen]

Yeah. Generically GTD is the place to go. Everything can follow afterwards.

What line of earning money are you in?

[Lanigan]

Hey Stephen,

I am currently not in a specific line of earning money. I'm a student right now studying leadership and business at the University of Puget Sound outside of Seattle. I am interested in personal coaching or leadership coaching, and I'm interested in real estate investing as a side hobby to generate a passive income.

Hope that answers your question.
Regards,

Lanigan

[borntosucceed]

I have been there, my advice too is make sure you have a good structure and apply discipline following your goals. I know it is very tempting starting everything at once - I got overwhelmed with this in the past and needed to re-focus.

I started rewriting my goals into smaller easy achievable steps but still leaving the long-term goals out there as well. Once you start reaching the little things you get more and more momentum and everything else becomes really easy.

[drummbellina]

Start with your health and the rest will be so much easier. There's an article by steve that explains it but I can't think what it's called....

[Alison Jenkins]

I've been there and what works for me is to take one thing and take one baby step at a time. It's been much more effective for me than overwhelming myself with too much.

Alison

[norbert]

The big a-ha about GTD for me was that you handle your thoughts just like any other input from the environment. If you want to get from point A to point B in your life, and you want to manage the improvement of many things at once, GTD helps you get there (by providing a well-defined structure for getting anything done).

[smartile]

Lanigan,

I saw this thread and immediately could relate. After being through 2 years of frustration, great times and searching I did an exercise to find my purpose. This exercise only took me 5 minutes and helped me to gain a lot more clarity around my personal growth goals.

I found my answer in Jack Canfield's, 'The Success Principles'. It's really up to you to take the next inspired action that will help you uncover your purpose which is quietly awaiting your calling.

In my experience, my purpose has clearly set a direction for me. Once I got clear on my purpose it became easy to make choices about what is important to me and what is not.

I hope this provides some insight.

Stephen Martile — Personal Development Made Simple

[Adrian]

I found my answer in Jack Canfield's, 'The Success Principles'. It's really up to you to take the next inspired action that will help you uncover your purpose which is quietly awaiting your calling.

I highly recommend that book as well - it's an quick read with a lot of useful info that you can easily apply to your life. While some of it is personal development fluffy stuff throw into an easy-to-read format, there were some gems in the book I especially liked (such as Event + Response = Outcome).

[kat]

Originally Posted by drummbellina

Start with your health and the rest will be so much easier. There's an article by steve that explains it but I can't think what it's called....

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/200...-the-physical/

[makessense]

Start a few 30 day trials on certain aspects of your life that you need improvement on the most, then work your way down to the little details (or perhaps working your way up from the little details, or maybe a combination. It's up to you). I find that this has helped me become extremely focused and determined. If it's health, exercise 30 minutes a day. If it's organizing/cleaning, do that for 30 minutes a day. If you find that it is too difficult, tone it down a little bit to a level where it's somewhat challenging, but not too challenging to where you're already making your life miserable on the second day. Make whatever you really want to do a habit! If you feel you need to improve even more after the 30 days, you can choose to do so Read Steve's article on it if you haven't already done so. Have fun and stick w/ it until the end -- It'll be worth it.