Now that we’re nearing the end of 2023, it’s time to reflect on our goals from the year, assess how much progress we’ve made toward them, and acknowledge what our intentions are for 2024. When I go through my own personal reflection process, I often recognize that although I made tremendous progress toward my goals, I could have seen better results if I was more focused.

Being focused is one of the most valuable assets we can provide ourselves when it comes to accomplishing any goal, health related or not. There are many ways we can improve our focus, and one of them is getting clear on our priorities. 

It’s easy to categorize every goal that’s ever crossed your mind as a priority. Unfortunately, calling every goal and dream a priority makes it impossible to actually prioritize anything. If we have too many focuses, we can’t give any of them the time and attention necessary to see substantial results. 

In order to truly focus, we must distill which of our goals we’re going to focus on at one time. Through research and practice, I’d recommend setting no more than three goals at once. You can have other intentions that are secondary, but limiting your priorities to three will allow you to achieve them without distracting yourself. 

Once you have your three goals set (you can find more information about how to set great goals in my previous article titled “How to set better goals”), it’s time to plan out what is required to reach them. Regardless of what the actual steps are, we must take into consideration how much time we’re going to allocate to achieving each goal, and at what intensity we will take action.

Duration, or how much time you spend, has an inverse relationship with intensity. If you’ve ever been on a run, you know exactly what this relationship feels like. The faster you run (higher intensity), the less amount of time you can sustain that pace for (duration). On the flip side, if you run slower, you can maintain that pace for a longer amount of time. The same goes for focusing on our goals.

To get the best results, consider aiming for high levels of focus and intensity, while intentionally decreasing the duration of time spent on each goal. What this could look like is a workout where you’re very focused, lifting heavy weights or keeping your heart rate elevated for 30-45 minutes, versus spending two hours exercising at a sub-optimal intensity and getting distracted between every set. 

Another example could look like time blocking a couple of hours on two days of the week to prepare a lot of meals at once, versus spending one to two hours each night cooking. 

When we don’t focus and prioritize keeping our intensity high, distraction creeps in, elongating the duration of time we spend on our goals. When this happens, intensity must decrease, because we are unable to maintain a high level of intensity and duration at the same time. Be mindful of this relationship as you move into the new year and see if this change in your approach gets you better results.

Xoxo

Coach Maggi