With a full schedule, she has to be selective about her time. So she creates a couple hours of focused time for her own personal needs; like our yoga sessions together. By doing that, she has greater focus and impact in the meaningful work she does.
I've noticed there is a direct correlation between my focused time and my effectiveness.
As a yoga teacher, I have the opportunity to impact people's lives, which makes my work feel meaningful.
To have this meaningful impact it takes focused time.
If I skip taking focused time to set an intention, center myself and connect with my inner guide, I could miss an opportunity to impact someone who needed to hear that quote I didn't read, or do that meditation that I didn't find time for.
(We've all been to classes where the teacher is on autopilot or unprepared.)
Whether you are a teacher, parent or CEO, it might be interesting to audit your own time and see how much of it is focused, meaningful work. Are you content, or would you like to increase your focused hours and impact on the world?
- MEDITATION. (Dhyana) Taking quiet time in the morning and before bed to reconnect with myself.
- SELF INQUIRY. (Svadhyaya) Asking myself what meaningful, impactful work I can get done today.
- EVALUATE. (Pratyahara) Journaling intelligently to review my goals and results.
CREATING SACRED QUIET TIME
Nothing takes the place of this. Most of us grab our phones and let other peoples agendas be the first thing we focus on, aka checking emails, news, social media.
What would change if instead you took a few moments to get quiet with yourself?
How would your day be different if you FIRST gave some thought to where you'd like to concentrate your attention? This is sacred. Sacred means dedicated or set apart.
Let the rest of your day be filled with what you must do but first DO THIS FOR YOURSELF.
INTENTIONAL LIVING
It's incredible to live intentionally. Ask yourself every day, "What is worth doing today?" What is worth focusing on? What is worth spending the limited time you have in this life?
Make life be as rich as you want it to be.
If you don't have any meaningful, impactful work on your plate, then consider what good can you do in this world.
Create some space. Carve out time to focus on that work which is YOUR DHARMA. Break it into small actionable steps and schedule them into your day.
If you want help with this, schedule a call with me.
MAKE IT COUNT BY MAKING IT REAL
Remember when phones hung on the wall? For most of us, gone are the days of writing our schedules on a big calendar by the phone.
Writing is a great way to keep yourself accountable and move your projects and your life forward. Physically writing with pen and paper creates something physical in the world - words on paper. This is a powerful first step.
Use a journal with paper and pen to answer the questions we asked above.
A regular journaling habit keeps you focused and accountable to the meaningful work you intend to do, both daily and over time.
These three habits can be adopted by all of us, no matter how busy. They are useful ways to create more focus on living a life of impact and meaning.
Catherine
P.S. Want help figuring out what meaningful work looks like for you? Let's chat.
