Coming Back to the FOCUS - When I Grow Up

Coming Back to the FOCUS - When I Grow Up Im having a bunch of revelations this month. Its odd. I feel sick, run down, stressed, sulky but yet my eyes are open to a lot of things that need to change. At ICA, my coaching school, there is a lot of talk around a UAC, or an Underlying Automatic Commitment. This is something that everyone has, lurking there under the surface, telling you how to behave. Your UAC could be that candy makes you happy, and thats why you havent been able to lose those 10 pounds. Your UAC could be that you shouldnt attempt to do anything if youre not perfect, and so you never start projects youre dying to try. I have a few UACs myself, but I think I hit the motherload. My biggest UAC is this: Being busy in the same as being productive, and being productive is being successful. Therefore, busy = productive = successful. Huh. I think I really do believe in that equation, which is mind blowing as I look at it now. If Im busy, it must mean that Im wanted, or worthwhile, or smart, or popularAnd if Im all those things.then Im a success! Thats why I have allowed myself to become so ADD-like in recent years, often keeping a dozen browsers open while I start one task while abandoning (or just stepping away) from the other. But while my ADD tendencies are fairly new, the busy-ness isnt. When I was in elementary school Id be balancing school and homework with piano lessons, Hebrew school, plays, soccer, baseball, play dates. And thats when I was 9! I recently commented on Danielle LaPortes post about entrepreneurial time management, asking what she suggests someone with a full-time job, school, a new marriage, and a coaching business thats on the ground floor should do to best utilize her time/not pull her hair out. Her answer was both eye-opening insightful: say no to more. let go of a few commitments. make sure you have a sacred place at home to do your work. get a support network in place a mentor, two fellow entrepreneurs to jam with. go easy on the Twitter and Facebook time use it as a tool to create community and spread your love. ruthlessly purge stuff from you living/working space have just 3 goals for the year be compassionate with yourselfeverything is progress! Having 3 goals a year scares the crap out of me (thats only 1 goal every 4 months! I should have 10 for the same time frame!), but if I start there..thats progress. Thats focus. If I got together some other peer coaches from school to talk about the business building aspect..thats focus, too. And recently Ive been dreaming about where I would want to make my coaching calls from, and all I can think of is a bright orange circle chair (like this, but orange) in a nice big office/studio. While I dont have an office or a studio (or a circle chair at all), I need to find the best space that I do have to work with, so I know when Im there its coaching time. Focus time. Gettin-down-to-business time (not to be confused with Business Time). Ive already determined that my word for 2009 is FOCUS. Now Im gonna implement that.