You do You – On Staying Focused

There are sooo many resources out there, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Pinterest, Dribbble, Behance, of course Instagram, Facebook, and the list goes on. How do you stay focused when you feel so overwhelmed by all of the options?

Like I shared last week that I’m an Enneagram five and how that influences my business. One our our traits is the tendency to over research and underact. That means sometimes I’m on Pinterest for hours without ever taking any tangible action towards my project or goal.

And, my gosh Instagram. We all put the best of ourselves on Instagram, and it’s easy to get caught up in jealousy about how many clients they have. Here’s how that can look in my head:

Ohhh this project is so good.

Wow what a beautiful logo! How can I pull influence from this without copying it?

I wish I was this good.

Man that must have been a big budget to do all those packaging materials.

Why don’t I get clients like this?

They’re booked out until APRIL? Ugh that project looks like a dream.

Why is this so hard?

I have like, three projects I’m really proud of. How are they booking one after the other?

I suck at this. Is Starbucks hiring?

Lots of times this ends up with me laying in my bed with no bra on binge watching some show on Netflix and eating plantain chips by the bag. Not healthy. I have to be so careful when I ‘research’ and watch my self talk carefully. When I start to see the signs of jealousy and overwhelm, I have a couple things I do.

• Put away the phone or shut down the computer
• Unfollow people or accounts that make you feel less than, even if that’s not their intention. Maybe you just don’t need to be following them right now.
• Get off the computer (personally I like to get outside and go for a hike).
• When the self talk is getting really bad, I have some ‘I Am’ statements that I read over myself. I highly encourage you to come up with some of these for yourself. They’ve been incredibly helpful. These ‘I Am’ statements are things I know to be true about myself, but can be hard to recognize when you’re in the moment.

So, how do you stay focused and inspired when there’s so much content out there?