Manage Your Mental Focus

EXPOSE | Manage Your Mental Focus

“Mentally strong people have healthy habits. They manage their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in ways that set them up for success in life. Check out these things that mentally strong people don’t do so that you too can become more mentally strong.” – Amy Morin

EXPLORE | Mental Inventory

Taking inventory is wise.  Knowing what you have, where you stand.  An appropriate look inward.  Amy’s list can be the basis of necessary introspection in order to keep from being distracted or unwittingly pulled away from our priorities.  It not only can be applied individually but even consider looking wider toward your team(s) at work, your family, or even your small group(s).

Here is the original list of 13:

1. They Don’t Waste Time Feeling Sorry for Themselves
2. They Don’t Give Away Their Power
3. They Don’t Shy Away from Change
4. They Don’t Waste Energy on Things They Can’t Control
5. They Don’t Worry About Pleasing Everyone
6. They Don’t Fear Taking Calculated Risks
7. They Don’t Dwell on the Past
8. They Don’t Make the Same Mistakes Over and Over
9. They Don’t Resent Other People’s Success
10. They Don’t Give Up After the First Failure
11. They Don’t Fear Alone Time
12. They Don’t Feel the World Owes Them Anything
13. They Don’t Expect Immediate Results

EXECUTE | Mental Focus Assessment

I’m calling this an assessment.  It is provided as more of a list, even a checklist, but to be beneficial it needs to be penetrated a little more.  So, I’ve turned the list above into questions we can consider to help us assess our mental focus:

1. Am I spending too much time focused on self-doubt, what-ifs, or unnecessarily assuming responsibility?
2. Am I releasing ground that I am called to/appointed responsibility over?
3. Am I resistant to the transformation God is intending for me?
4. Am I caring for what I am responsible for in a way that keeps me from ‘looking over the fence’ or at those things that are beyond my control?
5. Am I more concerned with gaining the favor of men rather than than pleasing God?
6. Am I paralyzed by the analysis of my options?  Am I unwilling to move even though there is sufficient evidence for a decision?
7. Am I looking back unnecessarily?  An evaluation of what has happened can be beneficial, but there comes a time to take from it what you need to move forward.
8. Am I not willing or able to make the necessary change(s) to keep from repeating what is clearly not working?
9. Am I too attracted to the approach or outcomes of peers or colleagues?
10. Am I easily demotivated by failure?  Maybe up the threshold on failure to 5 times as a way to mentally move beyond giving up too soon?
11. Am I able to spend time alone with my thoughts?  With time waiting on God?
12. Am I expecting something that I don’t deserve or that will never come?  What is the appropriate expectation to have of the world/others?
13. Am I being patient enough with the process or people involved in producing the results I’m waiting on?

I think you would agree that we don’t have a lot of mental focus or energy to waste.  Making sure that we don’t have any ‘leaks’ can ensure that we expend our mental focus on those things that are most  important–and wise.

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Further reading:
13 things mentally strong people don’t do