There’s something going on right now that is becoming very scarce in most people’s lives.

On one hand it is wreaking havoc in our society…

And on the other hand it is such a valuable commodity that it can completely change any area of your life. It can help you go from where you are now to where you want to be.

In fact, this is something that you’ve both done and not done many times in countless situations during the course of your life.

Some times it helped you and in other times it caused a major problem for you.

What I’m referring to is…paying attention.

But let’s go further than that because this leads to something even bigger that I’m certain you’ve had to deal with on a daily basis…

And that is your ability to stay focused.

We’ve all been in situations where in one moment we were thinking one thing, and then in the next moment forgot what that was while thinking about something entirely different.

These can be some of the most frustrating situations that you’ll ever encounter because they can happen any time of the day, to include when you’re trying to sleep at night.

Regardless of when these situations come up, not being able to stay focused is a major distraction, but the good news is that there are ways to completely turn this (and your life) around.

So the question is…

“What does it take to be more focused?”

1. Focused sleeping- I have a confession to make here. There was a few year time period in my life a number of years ago when I would have a very difficult time sleeping. Even more revealing than that is the way it occurred for me.

I’d either have a very difficult time falling asleep (sometimes taking 3-4 hours), but once I fell asleep I slept through the night…

Or I’d fall right asleep and then a few hours later (usually around 2-3am) would be up and not able to fall back to sleep. In both of these cases I was left feeling very tired and sluggish throughout the day.

At first I couldn’t put my finger on why this was happening, but I knew it came down to having an endless amount of thoughts racing through my mind as soon as I laid down.

I knew something had to be done about this because I couldn’t go on feeling tired and exhausted throughout the day.

This gave birth to two strategies that helped turn this around.

The first is that I started taking about a 1-2 hour nap around two in the afternoon. Due to my lifestyle at the time this worked very well because it allowed me to be refreshed. As my lifestyle changed it didn’t allow me the luxury of taking the mid afternoon nap. This is what gave rise to the next strategy that I use to this day.

I call it focused sleeping.

If you find yourself having a difficult time falling asleep, especially if it is due to negative thoughts and fears racing through your mind, look for the opposite.

Any fear that you have has more negatives than positives in your perception. To break that, look for the positive in whatever the “negative” is that you’re experiencing.

And a really good way to make this even more effective for you is to come up with whatever it is that you’d love to do in your life. Then start strategizing out your plan of how to accomplish it.

This is something else that works very well. Because after all, if you find yourself having a difficult time falling asleep, you may as well use that time to plan out exactly how you want your life. This is what I call focused sleeping.

I’ll be honest, even to this day, I sometimes have nights that I don’t sleep the way I would like. But that is because I find myself planning things out. Yes, it may reduce the quality of sleep that I’d like to have at times, but it doesn’t leave me tired because I’m focusing on doing what I love.

The point here is…

Even if you have a hard time falling asleep, when you use that time to focus on something you love and have a plan and strategies on how to accomplish it, you won’t be as tired as you normally would. In fact, you’ll be energized.

2. Attention all humans- Earlier I mentioned about attention wreaking havoc in our society and also being a valuable commodity. Actually it is the lack of attention that causes the havoc while it is the focused attention that is the valuable commodity.

And guess what?

You have both. Let me explain.

Every human being in the history of man and womankind has both attention deficit and attention surplus. Here’s the proof…

Take a look in your own life at what you absolutely love doing most. I’m sure that’s something you could do all day long and have hours on end go by without you even realizing it. This is what happens when you have attention surplus.

Now take a look at whatever it is that you dislike doing the most. In these situations how often did you find yourself getting bored really fast, becoming fidgety, and easily distracted? This is what happens when you have attention deficit.

In my case, I experience attention surplus whenever I write these articles because it’s based on things I’ve done and love doing. Time flies by and I get a lot done in less time.

On the flip side, any time I find myself dealing with computer tech issues, I have attention deficit. I get bored, disinterested, and rather fidgety to the point where I get someone else to do the tech work for me.

Therefore in certain situation I’m attention surplus and in others I’m attention deficit.

And the same is true for you based on your specific situations of what is and what isn’t most important to you.

Why is this important to bring up?

Because when it comes to your ability to stay more focused, you’ll do so when you have attention surplus…which is the result of doing something you love most.

Things that bore you, you’ll have attention deficit and therefore will have a very difficult time staying focused.

If you find yourself saying, “I have to”, “I’m supposed to”, “I’ve got to” chances are you’ll experience attention deficit and not be focused.

When you find yourself saying, “I love to”, “I’m inspired to”, “This is what I’ve always dreamed of doing”, you’ll experience attention surplus and be more focused.

3. Your emotional rescue- Your ability to be more focused ultimately comes down to being present and having a poised mind. When you are in this state, you won’t have the mind chatter going on. You won’t have a million things going through your mind per second. And you certainly won’t be distracted.

I’m sure this is pretty obvious to you.

What may not be obvious to you is the very thing that helps you become more present and poised (and therefore more focused)…

And it’s being able to manage your emotions.

Any time you get too “up”, “elated”, “puffed up” or “cocky” you get distracted. This will ultimately lead to becoming “down”, “depressed”, and you’ll at some point “beat yourself up” and have a high probability of having regrets. This will also keep you distracted.

Your ability to be more focused (while also maintaining that focus) boils down to you being able to manage your emotions. And a big part of this involves not getting too up or too down.

Whether things go the way you want or not throughout your day, the best way to react to any of these situations is in a poised manner.

And one of the ways you do this is to understand that in every situation there’s always both sides occurring, the positive and negative.

Once you’re able to see that, you won’t get distracted and as a result you’ll be able to stay focused on whatever it is that you’re doing.

Along with this you’ll also realize the tremendous amount of value that you contribute to the world through your uniqueness…

Plus you’ll really see how special and amazing of a person you really are.