Christopher Wilson
Christopher is an English as a foreign language teacher and writer currently based in Krakow, Poland. He has previously worked in Spain and Ukraine.
Here’s what Christopher wrote in to say about The Focus Course
I’ve been interested in productivity and related things since my dad gave me a notebook when I was a teenager. It was for keeping track of what I needed to do and for having all my ideas collected together. Before that I was a disorganized mess — something common for Dyslexic people — but that simple gift from my dad changed me and set me on a different path.
That path has seen me go through different stages. In Ukraine, I worked all hours and had few friends. I was either teaching, studying about how to teach better, or else writing for a variety of different websites. When I lived in Spain, I learned to chill out, and was opened up a host of opportunities that I would never have had before. But that introduced the challenge I’ve struggled to deal with to this day: focusing on what is most important rather than pursuing every cool new idea.
I have followed productivity experts (such as David Allen, Mike Vardy, Michael Hyatt, et al.), read books (Getting Things Done, etc.), and discussed ideas and more. But nothing really seemed to help with this core issue. Sure, they’d help me plan and work more efficiently, but I’d still get distracted. I’d start pursing something new with gusto only to find myself drained after a few weeks and with a “great new idea” that I wanted to pursue.
Working through the focus course helped me clarify what I REALLY want to do starting from my larger goals and then dialing down into my day to day. This has helped me to say “no” to some opportunities I would have pursued before. (I’m still not perfect here but much better!)
One of the results that most surprised me about the focus course is that I’ve started exercising and working out. I had wanted to do this for a long time but clearly not really desired it. The Focus Course helped me create a manageable plan of action that worked with my work and lifestyle that I could easily implement. Since starting I’ve gained 5KG in muscle, feel happier, eat healthier, drink more water, and have more energy through out the day! It was truly a keystone habit which I didn’t know I wanted, nor did I realize what sort of impact it would have. I had tried to restart exercising for a long time but teaching and practical application I learned through The Focus Course enabled me to achieve it.
The course wasn’t a breeze — I had to firmly commit to seeing a change and to take the difficult steps to achieve those ideas (though the course certainly helped make each step easier). For me, the hardest part of the course was being honest with myself and spending time answering the personal questions. Questions about what goals I want out of life can be really strange to own up to (even to myself). Fortunately The Focus Course had many guided questions that helped me with answering the personal questions about my life. Furthermore, the practical activities helped me to reflect and they greatly enhanced the teaching, ideas, and goals from the course.
Thank you so much for the course, Shawn. It really has helped me to cut out the crap and start doing things. It’s been amazing to see what has risen to the top — the changes weren’t just-short term things. The course has also given me the tools to keep pushing forward. Thanks!
I definitely recommend this course to anyone who struggles to know what they should pursue, what goals they want to make, or to anyone who has wanted to make a deep change in their life (be that physical, vocational or spiritual) but has not been able to overcome the resistance to make that change.
