Where to Focus YOUR Resources for the BEST results

Have you ever felt that you had so many things vying for your attention that you wondered, “where should I focus my energy and attention?”

Probably. I’ll help you answer this. 

Maybe in the past 20 months, you’ve had to keep checking with regulations, restrictions, and with ways of keeping everyone safe. 

These are common thoughts:

• It was a crazy year!
• I had no control!
• I wasn't able to run my business as I normally do. 
• I wasn't able to live my life as I normally do. 
• I had to make some big decisions about my business, my career, my family, and my living arrangements. ​

And now it’s the start of 2022. Where you put your time, energy and attention is important for your success.

I’m going to ask you some powerful questions (because questions are always the things that move us forward).

The First Question

In 2021 and in past years, where have you invested your time, energy and money?​

If I was to take your calendar I could probably see where you focused your energy and attention.

• Was it meetings?
• Was it travel?
• Were there doctors appointments?
• How about gym sessions? 

But what else didn’t make it in your planned schedule?

• Was it your home? 
• Was it your relationships? 
• Or was it Netflix and scrolling social media?

I hope you've got some idea of where you did focus. Moving forward, is that still where you want to focus your attention? Is that the best place to invest your time, energy and money? 

Well, I'll tell you, the best places to choose are the ones that give you the biggest return on investment. You need to know that. What is going to be giving you the best ROI? ​

Think: 

• If I put $1 in, will I get $10 back? Like with a better software platform. 
• If I put 10 minutes in, will I get 100 minutes back? For example, in trading someone to take over a task. ​

What area could you focus on that would actually give you a 10x return?
You know the area. It's you. You are where you should invest your time. You are where you should invest your energy. You are where you should invest your money. 

Because you're going to have the biggest return, not just in your work or in your business, but in all 10 areas of life. 

Sadly, as women, we tend to focus on other people’s needs. We forget about ourselves. We need to focus on ourselves and not feel guilty about it. And I find a lot of people invest in outward things. But why don't we invest in ourselves first? It could be that you grew up in a place or a time when you spend money on the things you needed like in the traditional sense like Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. You need shelter, so you’re paying your rent or you’re paying your mortgage. You need food so you’re paying for groceries. Same with medicine and also clothes. 

All these different examples are items you really have to buy to be able to stay safe and secure. 
Then there's the wants. Those cute shoes or handbag. Maybe some special spa services. The things that you think are the extras or that you still buy, but you're not getting as much of an investment back.

We've maybe been taught to go without it. You could feel like if you’re going to have any money to invest, it's going to be in marketing your business or in paying for services for your business. That's all great, but your yearly budget should also include personal development. ​

Some people wouldn't even think twice about putting 20, 40, or 100 grand down for university, but they wouldn't invest in: 

• counseling sessions or 
• hiring an expert to support them or 
• enrolling in a course or a program to build their confidence or leadership 

What's the difference?

Answering these questions is going to bring some things into light and help you decide what you want to focus on. 

1. What do you get excited about? ​

You do get excited about stuff, right? What do you like? What excites you? What gets you all fired up? Do you get excited about watching your kids play sports? Do you get excited about playing the piano? Or maybe about cooking? Or your favorite TV show? Or a certain type of car? What gets you all fired up? What gets you all excited? 

        2. How excited do you get about your own potential?

Do you even get excited about your potential? Have you even thought about your potential? You're maybe like, “Oh, not really. I just kind of make goals and go for it.” But if you can get excited about your own personal potential and set goals around that, where could you be at the end of the year? Have you figured that out? 

You may be thinking about goals, and you've written them down, and maybe written down a business plan or a strategy for the next 12 months. But have you planned about where you want to be and how you want to grow personally by the end of the year? 

Imagine if you were just 1% better every single day. So you worked on your potential, and you stepped into that 1% every day. You did something to better yourself, whatever it may be:

• listening to a podcast 
• reading a book

Now, if you do that 1% every single day, by the end of the next 12 months, you'd be 365% better. That's all you really need to do.

How excited do you now get about your own potential? Have you thought about what your own potential is? Or do you feel like you're in the fixed mindset of “This is how I am and I'm just not good at that or not good at this or I've capped out where I can get promotions or I've kind of hit the level of my business success.”

We talk to kids about their potential: 

• “You can be anything you want.” 
• “Just try hard, you can go for it.” 
• “What do you want to be when you grow up?” 
• “Oh, that kid's got so much potential in sports or music or school.” ​

We talk to kids about where they should go and what they need to do to get there. But are we doing that for adults still? I don't think so. Do you have a plan on what you need to do to be able to reach that full potential? 

Probably not. Most of the people I speak with and the audiences I'm giving keynotes to or doing workshops for, they don't even know what they want. They don't know enough about themselves. And when they do well, they don't even celebrate their successes. ​

How can you step into your potential, if you don't even celebrate who you already are? I’m not talking about like potential to have this much in sales. I mean, your human potential. 

Yes, we can get excited about business. We can get excited about goals, but not to be a downer,the only constant is you!

Jobs come and go. Some marriages come and go. People come and go. Health comes and goes. You are the only constant. You are the only one who will stay the same in your life, meaning you're the only one that will be there. 

By staying the same, I don't mean that you're always going to be the same person. But you will be the only one or the only constant in your own story.

Where you should focus your attention then does come down to one question…

​What do you want the end of your year to look like?

Now is the time to invest some time, energy and money into yourself. A great option is the Dynamic Year program where we will create a dynamic one page plan that you can use as a compass to tell you where to focus your resources. It’s all about making the achievement of your success easier and to increase your confidence while doing it. My clients do this program year after year and swear that it has increased their success not just that year but every following year. Check it out here. 

In my next blog, I will share with you the second question that you need to answer. 

Read my other blogs here:

• 3 Reasons You’ll Want to Review Your Year
  
• Avoid These Mistakes When You Set Goals for 2022
  
• Why do we go back to our old patterns or habits?​​