I remember to concentrate on my breath and let the distracting thoughts go in order to think about breathing in, breathing out. Counting my breaths helps a lot.
I use a meditation app called Calm. It has great lessons and during a session, it reminds you to focus on the breath an let your other thoughts go.

Have a pre-established scene or location in your mind that you can always be yourself back to (in your head, of course 😁) when your thoughts start scrambling about and you need to re-focus.

Close my eyes, take a deep breath in. Hold for a moment, before exhaling. Clear my mind

Truth is I have a hard time doing that. I just keep telling myself to give myself the gift of solid meditation and that I will get something from it.

I think out loud! I ask myself what are the benifits not the negativity. Is this going to be a challenge or a change for me.😱