Before we dive in: MasteryOS is open for enrollment. There are limited spaces. If you want to achieve Self-Mastery, unlock your true potential, and smash every goal you set, click here. 

I was drifting in and out of life, going to university classes, coming home, going out to a party or going to work, and repeating.

I was living my life on autopilot.

Days blurred together and soon so did weeks and months. 

Time was flying past and I was stuck in a loop that was getting me nowhere.

I would set goals but the second I set them it was like they were erased from the book of everything that’s ever happened in the universe (my way of saying I forgot about them).

And because I didn’t have a conscious bigger vision to align my actions with, I allowed myself to keep drifting in life like a leaf in the wind - helpless, with no control.

This combination of not having a vision to align my actions with and a feeling of helplessness meant I was making no progress which meant I felt like crap.

We as humans strive for progress. 

As much as we like to think “oh just be happy with what you have” we all want more. 

And that doesn’t necessarily mean we want more materialistic things like cars, houses or money, it can mean we want more fulfillment, more peace, better health, more security - we always want more.

Why? We are goal-orientated creatures.

If you look through the macro lens of life - when you don’t have a goal, you have nothing to strive to progress in, you feel crap, you feel lost and unfocused.

If you look through the micro lens of life - when you don’t have a goal, or if you’re getting distracted, you feel anxious, you feel lost and unfocused.

For example, I used to work (whether it was studying or one of my many failed business ventures) with my phone right beside me.

Every 5 minutes it would buzz, I would pick it up to innocently check the notification and 20 minutes later I would be scrolling TikTok, Instagram or whatever else.

It turned a 30 minute task into a 3 hour project and the quality of it was lower due to constant interruption.

The Distracted World

The world is full of distractions. It’s constantly playing on your body’s dopamine system, causing you to subconsciously become addicted to fast food, social media, drugs, porn, and whatever else.

But the main problem with distractions is the lack of focus that comes with them.

A lack of focus can be looked at as a lack of conscious effort, both in the macro of life with goals and visions but also in the micro of life with tasks and cognitive effort.

And a lack of conscious effort, or focus, leads to a lack of progress, a lack of results and a lack of fulfillment.

When you’re distracted, you lack focus.

When you lack focus, you lack a life worth living.

And yes, I get it, focus is hard.

So many people have ADD (although, I doubt this, most people’s dopamine centres are just fried through modern life), there are so many distractions and delaying gratification is tough.

With all of this, how are you meant to focus?

 

The Power Of Focus

Once I had reached rock bottom, I knew I had to change.

I crafted a bigger vision for my life (a macro focus), and designed actions that were aligned with that vision and that was the start of it.

Everything started to improve.

I stopped wasting time going to parties, I stopped procrastinating, I started working toward my goals and I started to feel amazing.

Once you have a macro focus, a vision, it’s easy to stop doing what you don’t want to do, what makes you feel like crap - every action you take, you ask yourself if it’s aligned with where you want to go in life, if the answer is no, you don’t do it and you find it easy, in fact, you enjoy it.

And this macro focus bleeds into the micro.

You understand that having your phone beside you when you’re working hinders you from chasing this vision, you stop procrastinating, and you enjoy delaying gratification. 

All because you’re able to align every action you take with the life you want to live.

You have a reason, you have meaning, you have a why.

So, by crafting my bigger vision, my productivity skyrocketed and I got more done in less time. And for the first time in my life, I started making progress, and the compounding of this increased productivity and increased work quality (due to more focus and intention) started to take effect.

You see, if you want to live a life worth living, you need macro focus (a bigger vision to align your actions with) and micro focus (ability to focus on the task at hand)

 

Compounding Focus

 

Everyone (at least everyone in the corners of the internet I, and likely you, are in) talks about focus - micro focus.

VERY, VERY few talk about the power of macro focus.

And NONE of them talk about compounding focus, the way the walls of reality bend to those who have both macro and micro focus.

Except for me - thank me later.

But, enough theory, let’s talk action. How can you build compounding focus? Well, you need both macro and a micro focus.

How can you build and optimise macro focus?

Get out your journal

And you’re going to have to write about 2 things in meticulous detail. CRAZY Detail. The more detailed the better.

• What you want in life

Write about everything, how you want to look, feel, spend your day, live, the house, the dog, your partner, what they look like, what they believe. Every area of your life, go through it in meticulous detail.

• What you don’t want in life

Again, write about everything, how you don’t want to look, don’t want to feel, don’t want to spend your day, don’t want your partner to be. The more detailed you can be in crafting your anti-vision, the better.

Set goals

You now need direction. Set goals that give you direction toward achieving your vision.

I would recommend no more than 3 goals at any one time. The fewer goals you have at once, the higher the likelihood of you achieving them.

Make a plan

You need to reverse engineer your goal down into a daily action.

So figure out the vehicle to achieve your goal, break it down into a smaller time frame and repeat.

EG: yearly goal -> quarterly goal -> monthly goal -> weekly goal -> daily action

That’s macro. How about optimizing micro focus?

 

Have a single task 

You can’t multitask, so don’t even try

Prepare your environment

You need a tidy desk. A messy desk = a messy mind. So tidy your environment.

Remove distractions

Anything that could distract you, remove it. Your phone? Turn it off. People? Put on headphones.

Now, there are tonne of little biohacks you can do to instantly boost your focus, but start with the fundamentals (the 3 things above). 

Then you can add in other tricks and tips to optimise your micro focus.

And a bonus tip for both macro and micro focus:

Every action you take, from going to a party, to working, to eating a damn cookie - ask yourself if that action is aligned with your vision.

If it’s not, don’t do it.

And look, focus is tough. You likely won’t nail this the first time around - that’s okay.

Focus requires a high level of Self-Mastery. 

The ability to craft a meaningful vision, set a goal aligned with that vision and then make a plan down to a daily action that will add up to that goal and then dedicating a high level of cognitive effort to working on that goal every single day whilst avoiding distraction in a distracted world - it’s tough, it requires Self-Mastery.

With that said, if you want some help in achieving Self-Mastery, MasteryOS is open for enrollment. There are limited spaces. If you want to get out of your own way, master your mind and accomplish every goal you set, click here.

- Ross.