Monthly Mindset, January 2021: Focus

For the last 4 years, I’ve intentionally built an overarching mindset going into each lap around the sun. It started back in college as something so trivial: post-it notes on my fridge. As I matured and began to sharpen my “voice” – both in writing and speech – I expanded this idea by setting a mission statement for each day, then each week, so on and so forth until we arrived here.

I’ve tried just about everything to keep myself within a workable structure outside the rigidity corporate America provides, which was once supplemented by academia, and now, I’m going to attempt to bring this concept to the world. By locking in a mindset for each month of the year, I know what I want to achieve while still being flexible. 

Each month is specific to my goals, yet ambiguous enough to apply to everyday life. I ladder each month up to the overarching yearly mindset to unlock its true potential, much like Yu-Gi-Oh assembling all the cards for Exodia or the Power Rangers constructing Megazord (did either of these obscure references do it for ya?). Idk man, basically, I go with the flow and reflect each month to get the most out of myself. Wanna try too?

First things first, let’s discuss our yearly mindset. Real OGs remember the Year of the Dragon (2019), a time dedicated to cutting out snakes and identifying “dragons” – those who had my best interest in mind. The term dragon was chosen to portray best friends and inner circle players. They are noble, trusted, powerful, and wise, much like the mythical dragon. They are also the highest-ranking reptile in the books, IMO.

Snakes, on the other hand, are low on the totem pole due to their trickery and deceit. They do their best to disguise themselves as dragons to gain access or trust only to use it as evil. In layman’s terms, I had a ton of fuckboyish characters in my life – both men and women – who needed to be cut out. It was an incredible year of growth and transformation. Upon reflection, I love what I took away from the year.

Then 2020 happened.

I took this past year to smash the reset button and continue moving forward. There weren’t any crazy gimmicks, but each place I found myself in mid-pandemic I viewed as the hyperbolic time chamber (another obscure anime reference? Truth be told, I’m really not that guy, but when I started writing this, it just made sense).

I know I’m coming out of left field, but what I mean is that one minute in each spot felt like an entire year (the concept of the chamber). Although time seemed to move slowly, I felt I had so much time to work on myself. We all did. It seemed that time stood still when it never stopped. Which leads us to this month’s mindset and the overall yearly theme.

It’s the Year of the Phoenix.

Where we all rise from the ashes anew; rejuvenated by time stowed away and better than ever before. I spent time in the shadows working on me, and now it’s time to put those lessons learned to practice. Right out the gate this month, we’re working on FOCUS. That’s it. Focus. That’s the monthly mindset.

What tf does this mean.

We’re quick to stack ourselves up against the competition. We compare and judge so much that it throws us off our own game. I swam competitively my entire life, and my coach Kevin Rosepapa always told me to focus on ME and ignore the others. He would insist that by looking left and right, I’d slow myself down. Kevin urged me to race the clock and push my body to the limit without glancing to the side.

Ever wonder why swimmers finish a race and dart their eyes at the scoreboard? They look to see if they won by viewing the lowest time. The swimmers to the left and right are inevitable. There’s always someone jockeying for position or working hard to overcome you. Why do you give a fuck who they are? You don’t even know them – even if you did, is constantly focusing on their activity going to help you grow? (No, it’s not.)

Focus on you and ignore outside noise. Set goals and your own vision. Use this month as a way to set the table for the rest of the year. I’ll be here to guide you best I can. In February, we’ll shift our focus to something new – see what I did there?