Claim Your Path for 2024

Claim Your Path for 2024

First full week of work since the holidays, no doubt you are back into the routine of daily tasks and projects.  Does the pace feel as though you never paused? Is it business as usual?

Most conversations I am having this week are about setting priorities, creating goal plans and experimenting with time management tools and systems to raise productivity.  The next few ‘Sandbox” themes will speak to these topics, but I want to pause to bring focus to a simple but powerful tool to starting a new year.  That is, to narrow in on a single focus that you can create significant change and reward.

The advantage of choosing a single focus is that it brings calm and clarity to our busy minds.  Our mind serves up a cacophony of ideas and concerns to process and handle.  Thinking is exhausting.  All that planning, creating, organizing requires a good deal of energy and if we give into the urgency of our agendas, we can lose sight what is important…what will matter to us as we reflect back over the year.

Choosing a single focus allows us to use our valuable energy to make change and create new habits and practices. A single focus makes it easier to recognize our progress leading to a greater sense of satisfaction beyond completing the daily to-do list.

Last year I chose the word “agility” to represent my single focus.  I chose the word because I was going through some changes in my business and my lifestyle.  It felt big and overwhelming, so I wanted to build up the skill of being agile and flexible, to lessen the resistance I expected from myself.  I wanted to approach change with ease and playfulness, giving myself time and space to adjust and enjoy the process.

As I look back over the year, I am pleased with how I took on change.  Not only in the ways I anticipated but I applied an ‘agile mindset’ to my physical conditioning, my relationships, and even my financial health.

Choosing a single focus is especially powerful when it aligns with your purpose.  I am using ‘purpose’ broadly.  It can be the purpose of your work role or family role. It could be a relevant purpose for your stage of life, or much bigger, that of your soul’s purpose.  It is entirely up to you how you want to define purpose and the boundary you put on it.

Take time to choose your single focus for 2024.  A restless mind may skip around on many ideas and directions.  Choosing one focus means putting aside many other things you want to achieve.  In my experience, a single focus leads to greater accomplishment and satisfaction.  These feelings are the prerequisite for energy to take on your next focus.

How will you fill in the blank?

Tip: Always phrase what you want to achieve in the affirmative and in present tense!