Focus module 1: Day-to-day focus

With a clear focus, we thrive and without it, we falter. So, how do you find the right focus for your day-to-day life....?

(This is the first of four modules of an online course called Focus. Delivered one a week, on a Monday morning. Paid subscribers - £3.50/month - get access to the whole course. Don’t want these emails? Opt out at annieridout.substack.com/account.)

Focus

Part 1. Your day-to-day

In the six weeks leading up to Christmas, I was writing a non-fiction book. I’d had the choice between having this book published in the following May or September and I went for May. I like to work fast and hard but also, it meant I’d get all the parts of my advance sooner (you get a chunk on signing the contract, a chunk on publication day and so on).

It also meant that I had to write a book that should probably take at least six months … in six weeks. It was possible, because I’d had this book idea in my head for some years and I’d written such a detailed proposal that I was able to follow that structure. But it could have become rather overwhelming.

However, I found that six-week period to be the most enjoyable of my year so far. I cancelled all daytime social events and dedicated my Monday to Friday, during school hours, to writing the book. That included interviewing lots of people on Zoom, whose stories I included in the book.

I know that part of the reason for me enjoying the book-writing process so much was that as I was writing about raising your SQ (spiritual intelligence), I was raising my own. I was walking in nature, meditating while asking for answers to questions I was posing in the book, having regular breathwork sessions and committing fully to my daily spiritual rituals. 

I felt clearheaded and focused and really good in body, mind and spirit.

As I approached the deadline, and knew that I would be able to hand in the manuscript not just on time, but actually ahead of time, I had Dr Louise Lagendijk’s words in my mind: Having focus is a highly underestimated element of health.

She’d told me, during an interview for my book, that her patients will come to her complaining of pain or illness and after checking all their nutrient levels, gut health and the physical side of things, she’ll check their mental health and eventually, the patient will say: hold on, I’ve just realised I don’t like how I’m spending my day-to-day.

They don’t have the right FOCUS.