Our lives are busy. We’re juggling families, households, jobs, and various social obligations, while constantly being distracted by media in one form or another. When it comes to our personal life, we have two options. We can let our surroundings take over and “go with the flow”, or we can work on mental focus for our personal life and do the things we really want to do. When you live with a mental illness such as Depression or Anxiety, it can become even more difficult to stay focused in your personal life.
This is why it is important to incorporate strategies that will lead you to success and to set personal goals on a regular basis. Yes, it takes time and energy to come up with personal goals and then figure out how to go about reaching them. I encourage you to create a goal poster with pictures of your goals and hang it where you will see it every single day. These goals don’t have to be all animate objects. You can set goals for your physical and mental health too. The important thing is having goals you are excited about. This can help you to stay focused on days that it is a struggle. Some days it’s much easier to get up, plop down on the couch and start binging our favorite Netflix series. While there is certainly a time and place for this, I’m sure you don’t want to wake up one day and realize that you’ve missed out on life for the past few years.
Many of us are better at staying focused in our jobs, but struggle in our personal life. Working on mental focus outside of work and business, helps you prioritize and make time for the people and things that are important to you. It helps you figure out a way to make it to your child’s soccer game or play performance, enjoy your favorite hobbies, spend quality time with your spouse and close friends, while still having enough time to relax and watch a movie and get a good night’s sleep. It also helps you focus on the habits and strategies you need each day in order to better manage your depression. It is so easy to skip all of these and just watch TV, but by having those goals in front of you, you can remind yourself to keep going.
The key is to pinpoint time wasters and focus on what’s important to you. It may help to keep a time journal for a week or two. Grab a notebook and start jotting down what you do throughout the day. It’s up to you if you want to track what you do at work as well. Make sure you track everything you do during your free time from the time you get up to the time you go to bed. If you’re spending your morning drinking coffee and browsing the internet or watching a morning TV show, and that doesn’t bring you the joy and fulfillment you want in your life, think about how you can spend that time better. Maybe mediation would help you feel less stressed throughout your day. Maybe spending that time working out would give you more time with your loved ones in the early evenings. Or maybe this might be a good time to get around to reading those books on your bucket reading list.
Keep a journal for a few days or even weeks and review were you’re spending your time. The simple act of having to write it down makes you more aware of what you’re doing. This alone will help you focus on each task. Next, make a list of things you want to change in your personal life, or even just a list of things you want to do more of. Maybe you want to take an hour each evening to play with the kids. Maybe you want to spend more time each year traveling. It doesn’t matter what your goals are. The important part is that you set them and then work on a plan to make sure you can reach them. Break each goal down to the smallest steps possible and conquer them one at a time. After that it’s simply a matter of focusing on those small tasks one at a time and managing your time wisely. It will feel less overwhelming to check off the small steps you achieve and you will gain a sense of accomplishment that will lift your spirts and help you to move forward a little more each day.
