Focus

The following is a Terry Wise production. Hey everybody, welcome back to the podcast. Welcome to Wie's Thoughts. I'm Terry Weiss and I am very very excited to get together with you today. Got a great show in store for you, and we're going to talk about something that I've been focusing on lately, and that is the topic of today's show is focus. How do you maintain focus? What are some things that you can do to maintain your focus in every aspect of your life. We're going to delve into that in some detail. I'm going to give you an update of what's going on with me and my world and everything else. So sit back and relax, Grab the favorite beverage that you'll love to drink, and pull up a comfortable chair around our virtual campfire as we get ready for another episode of Wie's Thoughts. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the podcast. Welcome to White's Thoughts. I'm Terry Weiss. So glad you decided to join me today, and so glad you're here. And wow, lot's been a lot has been going on in my world. And you know, summer's really moving along here and a lot of things have been going on. I hope you're all right. I hope everybody out there is happy, healthy, enjoying the summer. I hope you're enjoying the summer and some of the great weather. You know, there's people running around, Oh my god, global warming, global warming, folks. It's summer, it's kind of supposed to be warm, per se. But you know, what are you gonna do with this is just the kind of the world that we live in. Some people just see the glass as half empty, where I like to see it as half full. Though I've had my moments. But hey, if you want more episodes of the podcast, if you enjoy wise Thoughts, just go to my website Wiethoughts dot com. Just make sure you spell my name right wy c E. That's wise thoughts dot com. There you can listen to each and every episode of this podcast. You can subscribe on your favorite podcast provider as well over there, and if you want to leave comments about the show or feedback, you can do it right at the website at wise thoughts dot com as well. Okay, I am also on well I guess now it's called x but formally known as Twitter if you want to. I always was saying if you want to tweet at me on Twitter, it's at Terry Weiss w y C at Terry Weiss on Twitter if you want to tweet at me on Twitter or now as it's more commonly going to hopefully I guess being known as down the Road with the name change X. Also over on YouTube, I got a YouTube channel which is going to start ramping up here shortly as well. It's some more videos and interaction where I do a lot of stuff about music lessons and some ramblings on that, and you know, maybe some movie reviews and everything. It's basically just Wice Thoughts on YouTube. Just go to YouTube and search for Wice Thoughts and you will find me two hundred and nine subscribers or something like that and growing strong. I must admit I don't pay as much attention as I should probably to the YouTube channel. But now that it looks like I may have some more time opening up on my schedule, I'm going to try and refocus on YouTube a little bit, try and put out some more videos, some instructional things, some vlogging type videos to see what you like. Although it seems like a lot of people on my YouTube channel really seemed to just like the short format. They call them YouTube what is it shorts? Yeah, YouTube shorts. They really seem to enjoy that. So we'll be doing some more YouTube shorts with some song snippets and you know, instructional stuff on there. That's all at voice thoughts on YouTube. Facebook it's Facebook dot com backslash woice thoughts. If you want to join the Facebook community, see what's happening over there. So a lot of that, all that promotional informational material that you have there you go, giving you all that information that you need. But anyway, back to the program today. Oh, before we get started on today's topic of conversation, just wanted to let you know some of the movie blockbusters that they're coming out, like Oppenheimer, Jason Statham has one called The Modes and Meg two in the Trench or from the Trench or the Trench watch the Jason Statham movie and it, to be honest, it is what it is. I mean, if you enjoyed the first Meg movie, chances are yolan enjoyed the second one. It's just some goofy, unrealistic fun to you know, kill a couple hours, you know, in the summer, make two Jason Statham. If you're looking for deep intellectual Oscar mooning material as far as your movie viewing goes, that's not the movie for you. But you know what, it's still a lot of fun. It's an action adventure fantasy movie I call it. It's still worth you know watching, you know, maybe going to the theater on a rainy day or something, or a rainy evening or something, just to go out and suspend reality, suspend disbelief for a little while and have some fun with a Jason Stathem. You know, they all right, that's my bad, very bad Jason Statham impersonation. But have not had a chance to see Oppenheimer though. This is the one a lot of people are talking about. And also you know the other one there about the the child Smuggling rings out that's out there too as well. I want to see that one. However, I do apologize its name escapes me at the moment, but I want to see those two films too. Those are two on my list. The Barbie movie now not in my wheelhouse, my friends, I don't foresee myself seeing the Barbie Movie in the theater or even or even if it decides to make its way out to a video or streaming. I could care less about the Barbie movie. I mean, it's just not me. Now. Some of you with kids might want to see it, some of you might want I don't know. There's controversy around that about its supposed wokeness and all that. It's like, we just can't do anything without something weaving its way in politics and all that stuff. And I just wish that we could get back to how things used to be, where everything didn't have a political ramification. And that's on all sides. I mean, I don't know, everything's got to have a political ramification or a chance for somebody to be canceled or you know, disheartened or what have you. And it's just why can't we just go and enjoy and have fun. I don't know. Obviously it's up to higher people than me with intellect intellects that want to do that. But anyway, those are just some gives you a movie update of some things that we're going on in my world. But the Jason Statham one Meg to the trench or in the trench or out of the trench. You know, it's just goofy bombastic adventure, fantasy adventure summer fun. It's a good laugh and whatever. Go enjoy see if you if you like those kind of movies, go check it out. I don't think you'll be disappointed. Okay, what else? What else? Looks like the main source of income has finally stopped as far as that goes for a job I was at for quite a number of years, but they finally let the last of us right off in the sunset here this past week. A little prematurely. They had given us a date of about twelve days, hen but they cut that by twelve days and just decided told us when I went in the one day, hey, today's your last day here for all guys. I'm like, okay, so we're you know, we're dealing with that, remaining positive with a positive attitude on that, and you know that's folks, that's all you can do. I mean, life's gonna throw you some curveballs. Life's gonna throw you some obstacles. You just gotta, you know, stay focused. And that brings me around to today's topic of discussion on WICE thoughts focus. How to maintain focus, Why you should maintain focus? What, what what happens? And what to do? And what you can do if you lose your focus. Okay, this is what we're going to talk about today on the program, and let's just dive right into it. Oh, by the way, if you want to email me, it's mail m ail mail at wice thoughts dot com. Okay, So let's dive right into what's on my mind today here on the program, and that's focus. This is something that I struggle with even still, even though I am cognizant, I am mentally aware. Hey, here's the you know, some of the techniques, some of the tools, some of the things you can do to maintain focus. I am just like every other human being on this word, in this planet, and I fall victim. I fall prey to not being I guess, as forthright and not being as observant or aware that I'm losing my focus. And it can at times cause problems. Let's just be let's be honest. It can cause problems. Now when I say, you know, when we talk about focus here on the episode today of the podcast, what I'm talking about is it's not just like, oh, I want to lose weight, or oh I want to focus on my career, or I want to focus on my relationships. Yeah, those are all good things to strive for, all good things to apply focus too. I am probably going to start off with just speaking in general generalities. I'm focus. It really can contribute to your overall mental health. And what I mean by that is this. Did you ever just get up in the morning and you're like, oh, I don't want to get out of bed, you know, I just don't want to get out of bed today, and you just want to lay there, roll over, pull the covers over your head, and just say the hell with this, I'm done. I'm not doing this. Things like that, focus begins right from the moment you open your eyes. Now, I'm not saying you got to jump up out of bed, you know, like you were shot out of a cannon and just start running around and doing things right away. No, I'm being a little bit more realistic than that. My friends, Okay, and I know, excuse me, I know that you're just like me, all of you out there that you know, we have our flaws, we have our little idiosyncrasies that make us us. However, if we realize that focus begins right at the start of our day, that's gonna that's gonna be a good place to focus to start. What you want to do is if you wake up and maybe you got a few aches and pains to say, you know what, put it right in your mind right away, so you don't set yourself up for a defeatist attitude throughout the day. Just say, you know what, oh little, shoulders are a little tight, Oh yeah, little you know. You know, ran to many miles yesterday, or walked to many miles, or I was doing you know, horse playing with the kids or whatever little sort today. But that's okay. Today is going to be a great day. We're gonna get some stuff accomplished. Now. Just get up with a good attitude right from the get go. Do you you know your light stretching, whatever you do in the morning, yawn, you know, go brush your teeth, relieve yourself. When have you go downstairs. If it takes a cup of java to get your going, or a glass of water or something, just you know, stare out the window, look at nature, look at the sun coming up, or if it's raining, whatever, Just get yourself going in the mindset, you know, to start ramping up yourself for the day, all right. And by doing this, by starting off good and just generally getting yourself into that focus mode, you know, then you can start thinking, Okay, I've got to accomplish X, Y and Z today. Let's say there's only three things on your to do list, which, speaking of list, it's probably a good idea, you know, to write them down, things that you want to accomplish on a certain day, and you can do that the night before. That can always be done the night before before you you know, you hit the rack and go to sleep, because that's good to do, because that way it eases your mind. In the evening, you can say, all right, tomorrow, I want to do this, this and this or you know, three things, five things, eight things, whatever. All I would advise maybe on this and for what I've learned in my own personal experience is make the list at least as best you can attainable. Now you're gonna say, Terry, what do you mean by that? Don't put down thirty things to do if you know you ain't gonna get nowhere near thirty things done. You know, make it attainable. Make it at least let's say I don't know five things and depending on the size of each project or to do that you want to get done, make it something that is obtainable for you. You know, you know what generally how long a task should take. And you're gonna run into things. You're gonna run into obstacles, You're gonna run into situations. Your schedule might get flipped that day. You might you know, have somebody who is going to help you. Let's say, do something in the yard. You know, say oh I can't I got this. That that fine, but make that list attainable. Don't make your list the night me before so daunting that you're not able to focus the next day that you are setting yourself up for failure. So getting back to that stepping back, so you know, look at your to do list and say, okay, I want to get X, Y and Z done today. So you get up, you start yourself off with whatever. Let's say, let's say X on your list is I want to go and walk at least a mile. Look outside, the weather's good. Okay, yup, bing bang, boom, I can walk in my neighborhood. Whatever, Go out, get your walk done, tackle X first boom. There you go. One thing's done. It's gonna give you such a feeling of accomplishment. I got that done. Now you come in and let's say, you know, why is that you want to I don't know, trim the hedges in the backyard because it's your day off or something like that. So you know, give yourself a little break from your walk. You know what, have you maybe take a shower if you want, or what? Have you cooled down, you know, have some breakfast whatever, do some other out of the way things that aren't on your mean to do list so you can stay focused. So then once you do as, you come in and you attack why you start, you know, you trim those hedges, make sure everything gets done on that big bang boom Okay. Now let's say later in the day you have scheduled in z okay and Z is maybe reaching out to you know, a colleague about a project or something. Make sure you leave yourself enough bumper time to go in there and get that done. The point is is with staying focused. By staying focused now and again, you might not accomplish everything on your to do list every day. And speaking of to do lists, give yourself at least, and take it from me, give yourself at least what I'd like to call a free form day, one day where you have nothing scheduled. And if you know, that's not to say if you don't want to do things on the day, you can't. But give yourself at what I call a free form day or air quotes here, a day off from your to do list. It could be on your day off, it could be not whatever, but at least give yourself at least one full day of a free form day where you don't have anything on it to do list. Okay, it's gonna trust me, it's gonna do wonders for helping you to maintain focus on the days that you need it. Because the human again, we're only human. We need time to just sometimes veg out in front of the TV, or veg out reading a book, or sit in the backyard with a cool drink in the shade, you know, b asked with friends on the phone or in person, or what have you. You just sometimes you just need some time for you leave yourself at least one day during the week that you can do that. And I know some of you at there are already thrown up your hand saying, Terry, come out, I got so much to do, I got so much going on. I gotta get this done by that date. And thedd of the my daughters get married or whatever. This one we all would plan. Trust me on this, my friends, please trust me. I implore you give yourself that one day a week of a free form day. It's going to energize you and it's going to catapult you to set yourself up for success the rest of the week. I'm telling you right now, trust me, you will do it. So when you're when you're focused again. Maintaining focus is zeroing in or focusing in on the details of a project, something you want to obtain. Maybe you want to lose twenty pounds, maybe you want to get in better shape. Maybe you want to have your yard look better. Maybe you want to, you know, make sure your car is always clean, and you stop, you know, crumpling your papers up and throwing them in the back seat and just you know, next thing, you know, you open the door and it falls out and it looks like a dumpster. Stuff. Whatever. Okay, maybe you want to finish that book, that novel you've been reading and you've kind of put it off to the side, and you're like, oh, I want to read, I want to read. Maybe it's something like that. Maybe you want to advance in your career, so you start being outside and just taking a class or looking up information on your position on how to do things, whether it's let's say, customer service oriented or sales oriented sales techniques or customer service techniques or management techniques or what have you. Maybe you've always wanted to learn how to use Microsoft Office products, or if you're on a Mac user, you want to learn how to use the Mac equivalent, so that whatever it may be. Maybe you want to start your own business and you're researching. Hey, here's what I'm good at, and I want to start a business doing widgets. Okay, excuse me, So you know you delve in, but focus yourself and the things you can do to celebrate those victories. Write down your small victories. While it's great to celebrate them virtually and in your mind and tell someone about them, write it down. I would suggest just getting like a legal pad and keep it at as your victory journal, no matter how small or insignific. Again, do you think that victory is Trust me, write it down, because all it does is give you more incentive, more gumption, more get up to go. As I'd like to say, you get more get up to go and get more done. Remember, and these are some old old sayings. Rome wasn't built in a day. Each journey begins with a step. Okay, you miss one percent of the shots. You don't take stuff like that these And you know, I know you're saying terry, corny inspirational quotes, But my friends, it's so true. It's so true. You know, as from the Bible as a man thinks, so does he, you know, I mean, it's just it's your mindset, your focus that helps fuel your determination and your results. Okay, your focus and your follow through will help determine results for you. And again, ninety percent of the things that we want out of our lives, my friend, is not going to happen overnight. Very few and far between are those rags to richest stories. You know, if someone who says, you know, I want to be more economically independent, there's a lot you can do for that. You can start what the youngsters like to call a side hustle. Hey, is there something you know? Are you good at computers? Maybe you can tutor people on computers, offer up a service to help people with computers, or what have you. There's you know, all these different things you can do. Are you good at baking, you can bake some bake goods and sell them, or whatever you get at Etsy and create crafts whatever. There's all kinds of side hustles going on out there. They call them side hustles now where back in my day they used to call them extra jobs, you know, or part time jobs or what have you. But again, it all boils down to though, is your focus? How focused are you going to be on obtaining the results out of your life that you want. That's what's important, my friends, that's the key, and it's easy. Believe me, it's easy to get discouraged. I'm with you. I'm with you in the trenches. I have some days where I feel very focused, very energetic. I'm just like, man, let's let's go. Man, I'm ready to go. Let's go. And there's some days where I start out that way and then you know, speed bump might come along here or there, or I just like, okay, I've had it for today. You know, it happens to all of us. But the main thing you have to remember is when you feel like that, you know you're losing focus and you're giving up. You've got a recenter refocus, you know, and that might be as simple as just taking a five minute walk outside, taking a five minute walk around your house and just do some deep breathing, closing your eyes and sitting in your chair, and you know, and just maybe you know, putting a cold washcloth on your face or whatever, splashing some cold water in your face and just a few minutes just to kind of ground you, bring you back around and help you that to refocus and move forward. Just some ideas, just some ideas. I mean, these are things I try and do in that and you know, these are these are tips and some advice that I've gotten along the way as well that help me. I have some very lofty goals I want to do in the next year. By this time next year, I want to be a I want to be in a far further I want to be further along down the road next year. Now, will I be disappointed if I'm not at the goals I set? Yeah? But is it going to be the end of my world? No? Because again, you're in charge of you. You're in charge of your life. Remember that. Okay. Yeah, you might have some bad breaks and some unforeseen circumstances may happen to you. But my friends, at the end of the day, we all, all of us have the same abilities and the same capabilities. We can do and accomplish anything if we put our mind to it, and if we focus. Let me know what you think of this week's episode of the podcast of Boys Thoughts. Leave me some feedback. If you want to tweet at me on Twitter, It's at Terry Weiss and you know, if you want to email me, email me or even put some of your your tips for focusing in the show notes here for us. Let me know reach out or you can mail me mail m ail mail at Weiss thoughts dot com. Let me know what some of your maybe challenges with focus, or maybe if you've got some things that you've done to help you focus or overcome times when you needed to refocus. I'd be grateful to hear of any observations and any input and feedback that you have. It's great. Let's I'll help each other along the way on this journey called life, my friends, and remember, like I always tell you, to be the change in the world, you have to be the change in the world. It all starts with you, the person looking back at you in the mirror. Every morning when you get up, be kind to yourself, be kind to others, be kind to animals, and real talk and get together around the virtual campfire again real soon. Until next time, my friends, Terry wise, take care,