F Is For February and Focus

Every once in a while we need a re-alignment.  And whether yours come from the chiropractor or is self-inflicted, the process can open you up or drive your attention down a more singular path.

I’ve decided that February is going to be my re-alignment month.

Why?

As a blogger, entrepreneur, marketing coach, author, career strategist, speaker I’ve worn a lot of hats over the last few years.  It’s been an amazing journey full of unexpected surprises, great opportunities and, as you might expect, a few frustrations.

But, just like in job search, we have to be ready to push through the frustrations and obstacles in our path to get where we said we wanted to go in life.

So what does a realignment mean for me and how can you use the idea to help re-energize the things that are important in your life right now?

My realignment and focus for February can be expressed simply like this:

Now if you have a first reaction to this chart, it might strike you as counter-intuitive.  Everything on the right is what you might know me for supporting.

And I do.

But these are also areas that can be somewhat unproductive.  And unappreciated after you’ve been doing them for a while.  So a realignment will help me both reassess my focus in these areas and, after February, reassert their role in my longer term strategy.

Know that the minus sign does not indicate “STOP” but rather a reduction in time and focus.

Temporarily. 

So I can hit much harder on those items under the “PLUS” column.

Speaking of the “PLUS” column, you may be wondering what they are and why they are there:

Software – As many of you know, we just finished an initial private beta (testing) on a new piece of software to help job seekers build a powerful strategy for their search.  We are estimating another four weeks to implement the changes, improvements and fixes.  If you’d like to be on the need to know list for when we are opening the curtain, sign up here to be notified.  This software is the culmination of all the heart and passion I’ve put into Tim’s Strategy® over the last four years.  It is the deliverable.  And to deliver it on time, I have to dig in.

Business Dev - In addition to Tim’s Strategy, I also own Fix, Build and Drive™. I blog there too but mostly it is a home for my relatively new coaching/consulting practice.  The focus there is marketing, branding and business strategy targeting emerging and established companies or organizations.  It’s about helping the stuck get unstuck.  And strengthening companies so they can begin the push out of this economy. Learn more about my coaching and consulting services or send me a note.

Healthy Living – The one thing you think you finally have time for is getting in shape.  And eating right.  But I really haven’t done that very well.  Oh, I’ve had my moments.  And I do work out a few times a week.  But it’s not enough.  You and I could be doing so much more, right?  So now I will. For at least 30 days.  To see how I feel (broken or on fire for more). 

Family – The other thing I said I would do is spend more time with everyone I love.  But the truth is that the pressure to succeed as an entrepreneur (for me) makes that hard.  It is really hard to separate work time from family time.  A balancing act between being where I need to be and making the advances in my business required to keep doing it.  The cool thing is I’ve been able to see almost all my kids sports events over the past year.  But I’ve been missing mentally at many other key times.

So what does all this mean?  Will I disappear for 30 days and reappear magically a new man?

Possibly.

But I doubt it.  More likely, I will have achieved great things at a time in my life when I really needed it.  And made time for important actions and people. At at time when they really needed me.

So if I don’t respond to an email right away. Or respond to you on Twitter or Facebook within the hour, it’s not that I don’t dig you.

Because I do.

So quietly cheer me on. Send me a mental tweet. I’ll probably get it.

If you want to join me on this February realignment journey, download a similar chart here: My February Focus – your own place to choose a focus for the month.

To see what happens for you.

Written by: Tim Tyrell-Smith
Tags: amazing journey | Career | change | do you | focus | hope | Job Search | join | joins | Life | marketing coach | month | need | realign
Categories: Work-Life Balance