Turn Focus Periods Into Habits

With S3 in full swing, I wanted to go over something that I think it is important to talk about. That thing is focus. Now, focus is something just like willpower. It has its ebbs and flows, its highs and lows. If you try to be super focused on something for long periods of time (I’m talking for more than a few months) – what ends up happening? You lose that focus and end up stumbling, correct? If you think, “I’m going to eat perfectly for the next year!”, one or two things will happen, for sure. One – you do great for 3 months, and then you fall off and are so depressed with yourself that you only made it three months that you fall off big time and drop right back to where you were. Or, two – you think, “Ehh I have a year, I’ll start next month…. oh wait maybe next month” and before you know it you have wasted 6 months without putting things in place because “well, I have a whole year to do it”.

So this is where S3 comes in to play. Its 39 days. Its a focus period, a time where you can say “I can live without my sweets for 39 days, I can live without cream and sugar in my coffee for 39 days, I can rearrange some stuff and make it to training every day for that period”. Before you know it, you have done the things you wanted to do and achieved the goals you set because you focused up and you gave yourself a realistic time frame to keep yourself engaged.

However, here is the extra part that you may not have thought about. So much of what we talk about is building habits and figuring out ways to set yourself up for success. So who’s to say after 39 days of little to no sugar or cream in your coffee, you don’t actually start to like it that way? We can pretty much all agree that a large coffee with 7 mocha flavor shots and 7 creams (which is essentially a milkshake) is better tasting than a large with 2 cream and 2 Splenda, but you have adapted to drinking your coffee without all that added sweetness already, right? You still drink it, right?

It’s the same thing with habits during a focus period. Often what we find is that when we are forced to make things happen, suddenly we start finding ways around problems we previously thought we couldn’t. After 39 days, “my work schedule absolutely will not allow me to get to training” turns into you finding all kinds of different strategies and ideas to rearrange your time so you can make it to training. Those lessons and strategies shouldn’t be forgotten. You just were pushed to find a solution, which will help you further down the road. So get focused and make it happen!

-Coach Adam