In one of the podcasts over the past week the speaker asked the question about whether or not you’re on offense or defense as you organize and schedule your goals.

I think there is a need to remain focused on your own goals…and at the same time remain nimble, flexible, and in some aspects “defensive.”

If you’re playing offense, you’re proactively looking to score. If you’re playing defense, you’re reactively trying to stop the opposition from scoring.

The keywords in this analogy are proactive and reactive. Being offensively minded means that you’re proactively looking for opportunities. Being defensively-minded means that you’re reactively responding to threats.

I think it begs the question about being in control in determining what your goals are, and how will your spend your time to achieve them.

Shift your focus

One way to shift from defense to offense is to make our goals and projects extremely visible to ourselves and everyone around us so that we are reminded about which priorities should demand our attention.  In this context, I think there is a need to identify what will make you happy…and then making decisions, or having actionable steps to make that a reality.

We also need to force ourselves to disconnect as possible. This means leaving the mobile device in the other room, at at the least turning off your notifications and updates. Continually checking e-mail and text messages is a killer of an offensive mindset.

Be intentional

This reminds me of the Ikigai mentality and an overall focus in your life, goals, work, etc. A need to figure out your reason for being…and work to make yourself…and those around you happy.

Spend more time working and socializing with people who share goals and projects. They will naturally encourage you to stay on task. They will also push your thinking.

Spending time with people who have different priorities can derail an offensive mindset. Most of their comments and interruptions will draw you away from your areas of focus rather than toward them. Keep in mind, this doesn’t mean that staying on the offense is not Which is not anti-social or isolated. Instead you should think that it is intentionally social and purposefully interactive.

In this we can make decisions, direct our lives, work intentionally, and identify best steps to reach our goals.

This post is Day 11 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. Want to get involved? Find out more at 100daystooffload.com.

Photo by Irham Bahtiar on Unsplash