Multi-Passionate Mastery

[RE-BROADCAST] WTF is Intensive Focus?! + Why You (Still) Need it as a Multi-Passionate

January 04, 2023 D'Ana Joi Season 2
Multi-Passionate Mastery
[RE-BROADCAST] WTF is Intensive Focus?! + Why You (Still) Need it as a Multi-Passionate
Show Notes Transcript

Of all of the previous episodes of Multi-Passionate Mastery, this is the episode that I reference the most, so we're airing it again!

Learning about Intensive Focus is SUCH a game changer for multi-passionates, and once you tune into this episode, you'll understand why.

While you wait for season 3 to start, let's take a journey back to EPISODE 3 together!

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It's time to accept that focus is more than sitting down and concentrating on one task. Today I'll introduce you to the first part of my 3-part Focus Framework: Intensive Focus.

It's the big-picture, clarity-providing, magical type of Focus that you need as a multi-passionate.

We'll cover:

  • What Intensive Focus is
  • How to have an Intensive Focus Session to gain massive clarity
  • Why Intensive Focus is something every multi-passionate "needs" 


⬇️ SHOW NOTES ⬇️

  • Grab the Finally Focused eBook for only $12.99 HERE.

  • Take the FREE Focus Style Quiz HERE.

  • ⭐️ Help us celebrate 2 seasons of the show by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts (here's how) or a 5-star rating on Spotify! 

  • 📌 Don't miss out on hearing when we're back on the air for season 3! Subscribe on your podcast app or join my email list HERE for updates.

  • ✨ Ready to FINALLY break free from the pressure of doing "all the things" at once? Check out my coaching program, Prioritize and Thrive, HERE.

  • 💭 Do you have a question or reflection about this episode? I'd love to hear it! Send me a voice note.

You can find the full transcript of this episode HERE.

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Please note that any of the offers mentioned in this episode are no longer relevant as my business is closing. If you'd like to stay connected, come find me on LinkedIn!

hello, my love, and thank you for joining me for today's episode. You are in for quite a treat today because we are going to dive into my 3-Part Focus Framework. We're going to talk about the first part, which is intensive focus. I'll tell you all about what that is, and then we'll go into why I believe that you need it as a multi-passionate. You can learn about intensive focus and my full 3-Part Focus Framework in my e-book. I will link to that in the show notes. It breaks down my 3-Part Focus Framework using stories and examples and even provides some pages where you can start to play with these three types of focus and your daily schedule. The goal of my e-book is to break you free from this concept that focus is either something that you can or can't do and show you that there are actually different types of focus that you can conjure up based on what your desired outcome is. So, if you want to get your hands on that e-book and start to learn my full 3-Part Focus Framework, tap the link in the show notes and make sure you go grab that. All right. Let's dive into today's episode. So what is intensive focus? Intensive focus is big picture, zoomed out, high level overview focus. It's the kind of focus where you are activating your big"why" and you're thinking about your long term vision, as well as looking at what's directly in front of you and making sure that that aligns with your priorities. To create the environment for intensive focus, you're going to want to have some alone time. So maybe that's a few hours a morning, an afternoon, or an evening that you can dedicate completely to yourself without any interruptions. And you're going to use this time to create sort of like a conference of one. It's you and your ideas. You and your thoughts, you and your priorities, you and your big why. This is time where you don't have to accomplish getting any task completed. The only task at hand during an intensive focus session is the task of creating more clarity for yourself. So, let me first just go into how you can set up your space and your environment for an intensive focus session, and then I'll tell you a little bit more about how you can actually have an intensive focus session. And again, if you want the play by play of this, a checklist, and a playlist that goes with this, definitely grab my e-book and the show notes. So in terms of an environment for intensive focus, the most important thing is that you have a chunk of time blocked off, and you don't have any interruptions. No one needs anything from you, and you can drop in and connect with yourself. This is extremely important for multi-passionates, and we'll go into this when we talk about why intensive focus is something that I believe you need as a multi-passionate creative. So you want to have that uninterrupted time on your calendar. Again, think of this as a morning, an afternoon, or an evening activity and give yourself a few hours. You also want to have something to write on, some kind of blank notebook or maybe it's a white board. Something where you can dream on paper as I like to say. A good playlist definitely also helps. And I like to personally do my intensive focus sessions outdoors where I can be in an environment that supports me in thinking expansively. If you've taken my Creative Focus Style Quiz, and your style is the expansive focus type then you're probably loving everything that I've said so far because this type of focus comes naturally for you. You have that visionary energy and you like to zoom out and look at the bigger picture. If you haven't taken the Creative Focus Style Quiz, you can also access that at the link in our show notes. So you've got some calendar time blocked off, you're in an environment that supports you with thinking expansively, you have something to write with and write on, and also definitely get something to drink and a few snacks because no one can focus when they're hangry. Let's also talk about what you're going to bring into these sessions in terms of what to think about and focus on when you're engaging with intensive focus. Again, intensive focus is a zoomed out, big picture type of focus, so one of the things you're going to be thinking about is what is your why. Why are you doing all of this? I start my intensive focus sessions by looking at my vision book. I use a vision book instead of a vision board because I like to add pages and pages as my vision expands, but this could also mean that you are spending a few moments looking at your vision board or maybe you're writing some affirmations or maybe you're simply visualizing your ideal life, a day in your ideal of life. Whatever connects you to your bigger mission and to the why behind everything that you are doing and everything that you are focusing on, that's what you want to spend some time anchoring back into. Often as multi-passionates, we are so busy trying to keep up with specialists and just figure out how we're going to be a successful when we have so many things that we want to do that we forget to take time to slow down and anchor into why we're doing everything we're doing in the first place. So you definitely want to spend some time on that during your intensive focus session. You're also going to want to look at your priorities and your commitments and make sure that they align. You can literally do this by making a T graph on a sheet of paper. On the left side, list out your current priorities. On the right side, list out your commitments. And then look at both sides. Do they match up? If my priority right now is recording the first season of my podcast, but my commitment is learning the ins and outs of Pinterest marketing, there's something a little bit disjointed there. Now if my priority was marketing my already launched podcast, then learning the ins and outs of Pinterest marketing feels really aligned. So you can start to look at both sides of these lists and make sure that they align. It seems like such a small thing to do, but this is massively supportive for multi-passionates. Another thing that I want for you to do during intensive focus is ask yourself realistically,"Is there anything that I want to take off my plate right now?" Again, as multi-passionates, we often feel like we have to do as much as we can in order to prove that we can keep up with everyone else or that we can carve our own path. But during your intensive focus session, you have given yourself the opportunity to be completely honest about what you want to do and what's no longer serving you. So you can ask a few very powerful questions, such as,"Is there anything I want to take off my plate right now? Is there anything that I'm currently doing that doesn't feel good anymore?" And also make sure that you ask yourself,"Are there any celebrations that I have totally left under the radar and that have gone unnoticed?" Because I can bet you're doing a kick ass job, but you're also forgetting to celebrate. Intensive focus is your time to think about all of this. What happens as a result is you leave the session anchored into your why or your big mission. You have a clear view of your priorities and your commitments and making sure that they're aligned. And you've given yourself the opportunity to move some things around or take something off your plate if that's what's needed, as well as taking a moment to celebrate what you have accomplished Can you feel how powerful that is? It's from that place that you then want to go into active focus the next day or later in the week. Active focus is the energy of crushing your task and getting shit done, but we're going to talk about that in another episode. So that's how you create an environment for intensive focus, and those are the types of things that you're going to focus on during that time. I love to think of intensive focus as the clarity provider, and that is why I stand behind this statement that it's something that every multi-passionate needs. And I want to preface this by saying that I don't like to say what you need or don't need. I use that word really, really carefully because I believe there are few too many coaches who love to tell you what you need, and then they asked you to abandon your own self-knowing to to trust whatever they say. I trust you to know what you need over and above anything that I ever tell you, but this is one of those things where I'm just going to break that rule and tell you straight up you need this. Here's why. As a multi-passionate, you likely have a lot of ideas taking up your mental space at any time. That's your gift, but it can also feel overwhelming when it comes time to gain momentum on a particular project, and your ideas are pulling you in every which way. Intensive focus is like an anchor. It pulls you back to your why, and you're going to benefit from checking in with that intentionally again, and again, and again. I often say that for multi-passionates priorities are a lot like tectonic plates beneath the earth, and I live in Los Angeles so this particular analogy just really resonates for me personally. But with our priorities of shifting ever so slightly, the way that tectonic plates do beneath the earth, we might not feel it. But when our priorities make a big jump, it throws our world upside down, like an earthquake. That is what causes disruption and overwhelm and what will make you feel like being multi-passionate is something to be ashamed of. We want to get rid of that, right? We want to move through that and work through that. So without intensive focus, without setting aside intentional time to do this self check-in and this a big picture focus, it's difficult for you as a multi-passionate to reach a place where you feel comfortable prioritizing one project over another because you don't have the clarity to do so. So, let me give you an example and I sort of alluded to this before, but I'm going to go into a little bit more depth. My current priority is this podcast and getting it out into the world, but I had been spending a lot of time learning about Pinterest ads. And it's not for no reason, right? Because I have a blog. I have content. I've got digital products that I want to promote. I've got this new quiz, and I want to blast it everywhere. So I know that learning Pinterest ads can really support me. It feels like a good place to put my energy, but I had my intensive focus session at the beginning of the week. I love to do my sessions on Mondays so that I can start the week off with lots of clarity. And I wrote down my priorities and my commitments list, and on the commitment side, I realized I had meetings with Pinterest ads experts on my calendar and all these things going on with Pinterest. And I realized that can wait. It's not going to go anywhere. It'll be there when I'm ready for it. And if my priority is getting this podcast recorded, that means that learning the ins and outs of Pinterest, that's going to have to wait or at least take a back seat and I'll be willing to move some things around so that if I have extra time, I can do it, but it's not a must do. After my intensive focus session where I was able to realign with why I want to reach more multi-passionates and provide a fresh perspective on the topic of focus and really just not giving you empowerment content but helping you learn skills and tools that you can implement right away. Why is that so important? It's my life's work. It's literally what I am meant to do in this lifetime. And as I anchor into that, and I think about the snowball effect of one person being impacted and them telling their friends. Maybe it's you. Maybe you're listening to this episode and thinking,"You know, I know someone who seems to have a different priority every time I talk to them. They've got to hear this. I'm going to send this to them." That is why this podcast is so important. And when I anchor into that, it's pretty freaking easy to put other things to the side until this is completed or at least until I gained some momentum and I get some of my energy back. So after my intensive focus session, I was on fire about the podcast again, but if I didn't have that time set aside to intentionally go into that high level focus mode, those priorities would have continued to shift. And I would have looked up and had a super popping Pinterest and no podcast. So, this is why as a multi-passionate, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you need to give yourself time to slow down, look at exactly what you're doing, anchor back into your why, and give yourself permission to let things go or move things around so that your priorities and your commitments can have a symbiotic relationship. I have gotten so much feedback about the power of intensive focus from my clients who have tried this out. A lot of my clients will use this time to add to their vision book or their vision board. They'll anchor into their why. They maybe will look at their calendar and see what's coming up and make sure it matches their commitments list and their priorities list. This is so powerful because let's say you have a session like this on a Monday. By the time Tuesday rolls around, sitting down and working is going to be so much easier. It's time to stop thinking that focus just means sitting down, focusing on one task, and completing it. There's more to the story. And I can't wait to introduce you to the rest of my 3-Part Framework, but for now, I hope that you're intrigued by intensive focus and that you'll give it a try. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the multi-passionate mastery podcast. If you received anything valuable from this episode, send it to a friend. I know you've got some creative people in your life who needs to hear this. Also, please take a moment to leave a review. Even sharing one sentence about how you feel about this podcast can help us reach the hearts and ears of more multi passionates. If you're not exactly sure how to leave a review, I've left some instructions for you down in the show notes. Thanks again, and I'll see you in the next episode.