Independent Exercise – The Power of Saying No
As mentioned previously, there are many external factors that may hinder our ability to focus such as procrastinating and being overly focused on goals rather than processes. Another factor that can dramatically increase our ability to focus on what’s truly important is building our muscles to say ‘No’. Many of us like to identify as a “team player”, but there are drawbacks when our own goals, priorities and focus are compromised. One study conducted by Timothy Wilson at the University of Virginia found that while our brain receives 11 million “bits” of information per second, it can only process 40 of them. When we are saying yes to requests from colleagues, bosses, spouses, etc. we are saying no to focusing on our priorities. Since your bandwidth for the number of things you focus on is limited, it doesn’t matter how effective you are at focusing if you wind up focusing on other peoples’ priorities over your own. Are you putting others’ priorities over your own? Find out if you are and how you can re-focus through the following activity.
Just Say No Activity
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