Life Coaching Advice – Hi Guys, How’s things going? A number of my clients have had focusing on task completion come up for them lately, so I’m sending out an article I wrote a few years ago sharing my experience of yoga and surfing and how that focus can be applied to task completion. Enjoy…. Janet xo

Yoga and Surfing

The first time I ever paddle out on my board and sat waiting 15 minutes for a wave to come along, I knew I had found a place of peace, tranquility and oneness, just like I experience when practicing yoga.

Nothing else exists when I’m in that place. It is if I’ve made a special agreement with the ocean that I have permission to let go of everything and just be with this dynamic force of nature. The same permission applies at a spiritual level through yoga when you honour your body by pushing yourself to a gentle limit during each asana and the healing meditation at the end of the session.

Whilst surfing or practicing yoga, my stresses and concerns for the day just dissipate. The only things that matters is waiting for the forthcoming wave or calming my breath in preparation for my next move.

What follows your calmness is preparation for the next action. In surfing’s case, it is turning your board around and paddling out to catch the upcoming wave. With yoga, it is you, your breath and the movement to come. Either way, your focus is solely on the eminent event and your successful completion of it.

The beauty of both is that if you don’t succeed, you stop, learn, re-focus and feel better prepared for the next time. In my case, I laugh a lot at myself about how managed to stuff it up. However, by the end of surfing session, you feel nirvana for having got that good ride; yoga – you succeeded in finally lifting both feet of the ground doing crow’s pose. You feel awesome for having tried!

Task Completion

What if we can apply this mindset to our lives in task completion? I personally feel that we would be more successful and accomplished.

With that in mind, I put it out to you that for 1 day, you give this mindset a go!

For each and every task you need to accomplish:

1. Be clear on your outcome
2. Do not letting anything distract you (No email, no phone)
3. Aim to see the task through to conclusion no matter what

How does it feel? Good? Apply the same mindset for the next task… Keep practicing until it becomes an automatic way of being and working. I guarantee you’ll have better output in a shorter time span. Leaving more time for you to do other things. How good is that?

If you do need some help with focusing – stop doing the task and visual yourself in the ocean on your board, its dawn, you are watching the sunrise and the wave approach – you are present to that sense of oneness. Then get ready, get set and go…. Namaste…

Janet x