In December of 2016, the dream of working for myself was finally coming true! 

I left my job of 10 years with a major telecom, set up my home office and started  the work of launching my blog. 

The first couple of months, with book in hand, I built a WordPress website to  publish my writing to.  

The next step was to finish the training I had purchased on how to launch a  successful blog. Once I had enough blog posts published to start promoting my  website, I decided I need to start building a second stream of income in tandem to  blogging.  

This “something else” was to start growing a team with the direct sales company I  was with at that time. 

Here is where the misdirect happened. 

In the book Oola Find Balance in an Unbalanced World, Drs. Dave Braun and  Troy Amdahl, describe misdirected focus as “focus directed at anything NOT in the 7 F’s of Oola. 

Growing a business would seem to be part of Field (career). This was my thought  at the time. 

The problem was, I had not finished growing my first stream of income before  turning my attention to a second stream of income. 

The result was divided or misdirected focus, which eventually led to me giving up  on my dream and going back into the work force. 

I left the workforce again in the summer of 2019. This time not by choice, though  it was the best thing to happen to me. 

Taking a cue from the last time I tried to start my own business and realizing  working for someone else was no longer an option for me, I started a small “stop 

gap” business to keep me home. I gave this my full attention for 7 months and then  the pandemic hit.  

Most of my clients were gone, leaving me with one client, the one that took most  of my time. Due to the pandemic, the work with this client slowed down  tremendously giving me a good bit of free time. 

During this time, I discovered Oola Life Coaching, which was right in line with my  purpose. I took the slow down in my other business as a sign to start something  new. 

After getting my certification, I found my passion and joy again. I was so excited  to get started on the new journey. 

Within a month or two of my certification my active client’s business showed signs  of revival, I had a conversation with him letting him know it was time to find a  replacement for me. 

I had learned my lesson of misdirected focus and knew that both my business with  him and my coaching business would suffer if I tried to do both. 

Having learned my lesson a few years back, I am now lasered focused on serving  my people through coaching, writing, and speaking. All which fit perfectly  together and do not misdirect my focus. 

Walking out my Oola life, in purpose and with much more balance than I have ever  had is in part due to learning from my season of misdirected focus. That season  taught me how to have a laser beam focus as opposed to a flashlight focus. 

Cindy Dement is a Certified Oola Life Coach 

You can find her group on Facebook @ Finding Your Purpose Walk