How to Stay Focused on Your Priorities Without Burning Out
So I was reading the marketing legend Gary Halpern’s Boron letters.
He wrote these letters to his son and his son adds feedback on what he learned.
There was one thing that stuck out.
His son said that Gary was really great at saying no and prioritizing. Nothing stood in the way of what he felt was most important to his life and routine.
Nothing.
He even ended his birthday celebration earlier once to spend time with a friend he wouldn’t see for a while.
To quote his son:
“My dad had a rare and enviable skill of eradicating people from his life if they were not a positive influence…We all have people in our lives we are stuck dealing with for a variety of reasons such as loyalty based on past friendship, family or some other sense of duty. Well not my pop. He said SCREW THAT and cut anyone who impeded his enjoyment right out of his life for good.”
He was strict with his exercise routine and life. Anything or anyone who brought a negative influence to his life, he cut out. Even family. He moved towards constructing a life of maximum enjoyment.
There’s something to be learned from that. That’s why we’ll be talking about how to stay focused on your priorities and eliminate distractions today. Listen to the podcast below for details not mentioned in this article.
Do you have a family member whose holding you back with their negative words or actions? Do you know someone you hang around who doesn’t believe in you or prevents you from pursuing your dreams? Or do you keep getting distracted from work thanks to social media?
Why do you stay with them? Is it because they’re family? Is it because they’re long-time friends?
This is your life. Don’t let them hold you back from enjoying it to its fullest.
Obviously, this advice can be taken the wrong way. If you’re destroying your life with drugs or ruining your long-term success by partying too much, maybe you should listen.
Chances are you’ve tried using pure willpower to hold back, and it hasn’t worked. Another way is to give yourself time limits. That way, you’re letting it happen but slowly reducing how much time they give you.
I remember visiting a co-ed soccer game. I didn’t set any level of time limit beforehand and ended up staying for two to three hours even though the amount of fun I had quickly diminished. I stayed because I didn’t want to be rude and it was “kind of” fun.
But in reality, there were tons of people who left throughout the event, and no one considered them rude. I should have set a one-hour time limit before arriving.
Examine your own life and see where you can set stricter time limits than before.
Most people never even notice how much time they waste. If the average person tracks their time, they’ll be surprised to find they waste 3 to 5 hours on their phone, computer, and TV. The Screen Time feature on iPhones is an easy way to get started tracking that. It also offers a time limit you can place on apps.
Another thing I picked up from the letters is what his son said about finding positive people:
“Most people think the hard part is finding positive people, but that isn’t true.”
It may be difficult to find successful, ambitious, hard working, and positive people. But positive people are everywhere. For every twenty people you stumble across,