Another busy week at the day job and home life kept me from blogging and I have missed it. I had to shift my free time focus to family, as they are the ones needing it most these days.
While we are in excitement mode for our Labor Day trip to Buffalo to reunite with the majority of my newly discovered family, our focus over the past couple of weeks and mostly the past week has been on our family in Iowa. We will be loading up the SUV up this afternoon in downtown Chicago and heading to Iowa to see Steve's family. His dad is not doing all that great and we need to ensure our love and focus is for them this weekend. As with most of us during these types of situations you want to make sure your loved ones know that the time is htere and I need to be sure that Steve knows that too.
When all of us are together in the car, the road trips are usually a hoot as we drive and explore through 8+ hours of rural countryside. So my inspiring message this weekend for myself and hopefully others will include the need to maintain focus on family when they need it most. There will certainly be the time to do it. Of course I adore all of my family and I believe they know that, so it will be fun too. The reason for focus for myself is that sometimes it is hard to maintain a focus when there are so many important things and events (present and future) that are on the horizon at the same time. Regardless, I will be to keep Steve and the kids motivated and positive on future family life as we make the long drive.
So, how do we maintain focus on something when there is so much other stuff going on around us? I ask myself that on a routine basis these days. I know that it is not about multi-tasking, because that would not be maintaining your focus, but splitting it up and believe that defeats the purpose and others needing your focus will know it too. I believe that you must put all of the things around you down and make sure your undivided attention is focused on the most important target.
I am fully aware that it is easy to get distracted and loose focus of a your surroundings and maintain the new day of positive thinking for the moment with the amount of distractions that can get in our way (radio, TV, phone ringing, etc.). What I attempt to do is to go back to my goal. I will shut off and down all the distractions and remind myself of the moment of life where I am at, needed and about the atmosphere that I am trying to create. I also think about what it is that I hope to achieve. Because it can be easy to drift and lose my focus and attention, so I try to live in the present moment only, let one person talk at a time, listen and pay attention. I will be doing it with care and to the best of my ability. As cliche as it may sound, I try to remember that my immature mind hops from one thing to another; and my mature mind seeks to follow through. That usually gets it done.
I often use my private quiet time to assemble my thoughts and remember the important things that are on the horizon and the other things that I need to get done but when I need to make sure my focus is where it needs to be, I do my best to present in the moment 100% and I will do that for our Iowa family this weekend.
There is an old and very quaint German Proverb that I think about during times like these, which says, "the main thing is keeping the main thing the main thing." And remember; if you find yourself being overwhelmed, it will be time to remember the 'main thing' and regain your focus.
Nice!!!
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