How To Stay FOCUSED (Beat Shiny Object Syndrome) | Interview with Arno Jansen

In this blog post, I sit with Arno Jensen to discuss how can you stay hyperfocused and overcome the shiny object syndrome.

Arno helps people build their dream life and many of his clients are building businesses not only to finance their dream life but also want to increase their autonomy so that they have more influence on how they spend their time every day.

What Is The Cost of Poor Focus?

Arno said that improving your focus does not lie in the goal itself but in understanding that having a long-term focus is important to achieve what you want to achieve over a long period of time.

He believed that it’s the most important thing and if you don’t do that, you run the risk of turning your long-term goals into never-term goals.

Why?

Because achieving something gives you direction or a vision. And that alone requires effort, a lot of effort over a long period of time.

If you are able to direct your focus and attention to those things, you’ll make progress in that direction a lot easier.

But as a Solopreneur, Arno believed that there are some differences like:

• A Solopreneur spends time behind computers alone.
• There is no support system like you have in an office setup.
• You are not being pulled into work or tasks or meetings whether those are good or not.
• No people around you that will make you feel that you have to do something.

Since you are working alone, it’s really up to you to come up with:

• Ways to know yourself better over time.
• How you can stay focused?
• What do you want to focus on or need to focus on?

Remember that it’s what you focus on is the direction that you are going in.

He also shared real-life experiences to show examples of what he believes in.

He has been traveling on a motorcycle a lot over the past decades and has done a lot of extra training to be better at handling the motorcycle. It was a police officer who gave that one of those training said about what he noticed in some of the accidents in motorcycling.

According to that police officer, one of the accidents he comes across is where the motorcyclist hits a tree or a lamp post when the driver misses a turn and it’s that one object in that whole turn. 

How can you actually hit that one lamp post or that one tree?

The police officer said that it is because that is what they focus on. It’s what they’re scared of hitting and that’s where they end up going too.

The same goes for skiers, how can they go through the forest without hitting these trees?

Because they’re not looking at the trees. They are looking at the snow.

Arno believed that having focus is all about that. Where you put your focus on, is where you are heading to. You will not be hitting all the things you are scared of. No guarantee but at least you will not be where you are now.

Focus Improves Your Business

Arno believed that there are different levels of focus and it depends on the level that we are addressing.

This is the first level.

He told his clients to have an environment that does not distract them and have a plan if his clients want to focus on writing:

• A blog post
• Script
• Email
• Or book

There’s a higher level of focus which is often related to Clarity.

Arno gave up two decades plus of a career in technology to start going the path of self-employment and did not take his IT skills in that direction and a lot of his clients have similar stories as him.

They are building something on the side of their regular day-to-day because it is what they are passionate about and what they find meaningful and that requires clarity.

You can start by asking these questions to yourself:

• What direction do I want to go in?
• Why am I doing all of this?
• Why it is important for you?

When you are able to focus and start working towards that direction, you start closing the feedback loop. You now start seeing the effort you put in that has a certain effect:

• On yourself
• On the world
• On the people around you.

That’s when you get more clear about what you want and why you want it.

And that is very different from having the focus on the task at hand.

Arno approached a lot more in terms of environment design like the stuff around you, your routine to get into focus and out of focus.

Arno also shared his experience in the corporate world where yearly, he needs to come up with plans like where he wants to be five years from now and he always struggled.

It always gives him stress because he never knew where he wanted to be 5 years from now. Because a lot can happen between now and five years.

When he became self-employed, about three years ago, he realized that it’s not about five years from now, it’s about the direction. That is mostly how narrow your focus going forward is.

That means the clearer you have that focus on where you would like to end up:

• The more clarity you have about what are you saying no to.
• It makes it easier to answer the question, “Why do I want to write this book?”

Yes, it won’t make the work easier if you have never written a book but it makes a lot easier to answer that question for yourself.

Again, no guarantees that you’ll end up there but it’s much better from where you are now.

How To Overcome Shiny Object Syndrome?

Arno considered himself as someone who is focused yet can still fall for shiny objects sometimes. He pointed out the following ideas about Shiny Object Syndrome and Focus:

• Shiny Object Syndrome is not necessarily a bad thing.
• It is a little bit of a container term.
• The goal of focus is not to be focused all the time but to get the stuff that needs to be done.

Personally, Arno believed that shiny objects don’t really mean anything specific. It can be a new gadget or new technology. Anyone can still fall for Shiny Object Syndrome because of our shortcomings.

What he’s sure is that if someone doesn’t have a clear goal or direction of what he wants to achieve or where he wants to go, he can be easily distracted.

With that, always remember the following questions:

• What is it that you want?
• What is it that you value in life?

Since Shiny Object is not anything specific, it can be:

• Fancy stuff
• A social media post about some dream life that somebody has
• Anything that can distract you easily

For instance, for me, the shiny object is:

“It is every opportunity that I see to make an offer. There are so many problems in the marketplace and I know solving the problem will not only help the person but it will also help me grow my business. But as a solopreneur with a small team, saying yes to solve too many problems is very dangerous to my business”

This, itself is not necessarily a bad thing because:

• It can make me earn more money
• Give me some financial stability
• Can help someone else solve a problem they’re having

But as Arno said, it does not align with my long-term goals. That means I am aware that I am saying no to writing another chapter of my book for example.

Shiny Object Syndrome can also be business ideas that match and mix your interests at that moment. It stays Shiny Object Syndrome if you keep on fantasizing about it.

Arno believed that in that case, Shiny Object Syndrome is not about curing it or distractions, in general. It is about catching yourself being distracted and then knowing yourself well enough over time how to deal with that specific situation.

Vague Shiny Objects VS Specific Shiny Objects

Arno believes that a lot of the shiny objects are specific enough that they will align with your vision but they are also vague enough that it’s very hard to act on.

He shared that whenever he was on X (formerly Twitter) it’s like being able to do whatever he wanted with whoever he wanted for as long as you want.

Basically, it’s a get-out-a-jail card. And who doesn’t want that? Isn’t that the ultimate luxury? Right?

You can do whatever you want because you have enough:

• Friends
• Money
• Time
• Environment

If you don’t have that clarity of what that means to you then making your vision as vague as it is, is a great idea to get fired up. But as soon as you hit a bump in the road it doesn’t provide enough substance and specificity to keep you in the direction that you want it.

So make it specific.

For some people, it can be:

• Being able to travel and work at the same time.
• To travel the winter month to a warmer place and be able to work from there.
• Travel the world and not work at all.
• Travel the world and spend days with your kids or loved ones.

But as soon as Arno hits a bump and doesn’t have that clarity then it is either going to be misaligned with his efforts. His direction is off and he allows himself to be distracted or just sit down especially if there’s no immediate financial reason to get his work back together.

If something sounds really good and awesome, it’s easy to get distracted and to think that you should also be doing it, but then that is usually a vague description whereas making it specific, this shiny object becomes more appealing.

It aligns and fits perfectly to what you want to do but as we deep dive and make it more specific, we discover that it is not exactly what you really wanted.

According to Arno, the shiny objects that we fantasize are about big dreams and it is so easy to dream big for most of us. But there are some questions we need to address:

• How do I break those big dreams down?
• What’s the first step I can take to get focused on that shiny thing and close that feedback loop?
• Is this really what I want?
• Is this really a great idea?

Remember that some ideas need a long sustained effort in order for them to pay off and some just quickly resonate back that this was not a great idea.

Average VS Above-Average Focus

Arno does not know what the unit of measure is for focus so it doesn’t make sense to actually measure it.

But one thing he and his clients get a lot of value out of it is self-evaluation.

There is a lot of advice for productivity online such as:

• Peak productivity
• Peak Focus
• Getting as much done all the time

But it really isn’t about that.

Arno believed that it is about effective and efficient in what you do.

So what do you mean by effective and efficient?

Effective is when you do the right things to get in that direction. Efficiency is about doing things right.

And these two can only be determined once you’ve actually done them. You look back, think, and ask yourself, was that efficient or effective?

That is where self-reflection or self-evaluation comes into the picture. Regular self-reflection is very powerful in making things work out.

It can be in the form of:

• Journaling
• Weekly reviews

He also emphasizes that regular check-ins with yourself do not only apply to business. A lot of solopreneur movement is about lifestyle. Fueling the lifestyle that you want now and in the future.

You can ask yourself:

• Am I on the right track?
• What did I do today or this week?
• Did that contribute to the goal I want to achieve?
• Is the direction that I’m going in, is that still what I want to go in?
• Should I pivot or persevere?

Best Way To Improve Your Focus

Improving your focus depends on the level of focus that you want to improve.

If you want to improve your focus on the task you have at hand, here are some tips that you can try, according to Arno, of course:

• Optimizing your environment.
• Creating a routine so that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every single day.
• End your day knowing what your big task is for tomorrow.

If we are talking about the business and a higher level of focus, it is about reflection. Coming up with what it is that you want. Was that direction making that clear? You can also consider asking yourself a bunch of questions like:

• What do I want?
• Where do I want to go?
• What do I want to experience?
• Is there a skill that you would like to learn?

It doesn’t have to be monetized in your business and you don’t even have to explain it in great detail. Because a lot of stuff, we feel deep inside that it resonates, and then when that happens for you to do that, that brings a lot of focus in the longer term.

Arno emphasized that knowing why you are putting yourself through that situation can really help you to stay focused.

He also said that the frequency of doing self-reflection or self-evaluation doesn’t matter as long as you do it regularly and you start building up a trend.

To see trends over time, that’s where the value is.

• If you do it once every week only, that’s okay.
• If you do it only when you’re feeling down, then it becomes your narrative.
• If you do it only when you had an amazing week, that’s what you compare yourself against.

Coaching Advice To Improve Focus

“Know the direction you’re going in but please look for ways to put a little bit of what you want ultimately into your day-to-day.

-Arno Jansen, Coaching Consultant, TryingIsBeing

One great piece of advice from Arno is to make sure that you find ways to know why you’re going in that direction and then find a way to put a little bit of that into your day-to-day.

This resonates very closely with him. As Arno mentioned, he is 45 and not getting older. He personally saw some people who did live that life of saving money and working towards retirement and then even before they retired:

• They got sick
• Had a pandemic
• Or lost loved ones while still in good health

If you need help finding your direction in your life or in your business, you can actually reach Arno through the following:

• Visit his website to read his blogs, https://tryingisbeing.com/
• He also offers consulting services, send him an email at hello@tryingisbeing.com
• Check out this Free Focus Finder Course here, https://tryingisbeing.com/focusfinder

So how do you stay focused?

And don’t forget to subscribe on my YouTube channel, @creategrowprofit.