dIsTrAcTiOnS
- Mar 13
- 6 min read
We all become distracted at some point in life, it's the result of being temporarily side-tracked from an intended goal. This is normal and will happen almost everyday but it only becomes a problem when you're distracted consistently enough that you start to feel bad about it.
The important thing is to understand if that distraction is internal (you) or external (other people or things).
Now you must be honest with yourself. If it's you then it's typically the way you are thinking and/or feeling and if it's external, the same applies. What is it about what's happening that is affecting your ability to stay focused, motivated, dedicated or driven to carry on regardless?
The most common problem I come across is that most people don't honestly analyse the distraction in depth and mask over it - meaning, they hope that the problem will go away and fix itself. Sometimes this will be enough as you may simply of had a busier week in work or at home which has taken more of your time and energy.
Things usually settle back down the week after when the demands on you are less, therefore you have more energy to focus back on what you intended. But sometimes this automatic fix doesn't happen and a more intense intervention is required. The downside is that your energies can deplete so much that you become fatigued and therefore require more me time to recuperate.
Another problem with this is sometimes our self soothing leads us back into short term bad habits that impact our daily attention, energy and focus. WHY? Because sometimes our coping mechanisms for stress lead to more stress because they're rooted in tuning out aka running away from things.
Let's put this thinking towards you and your goals. You have a personal mission and you've set yourself a passionate goal for something you really want - LIVING WITH PURPOSE.
If we say that when we get distracted we have 2 images at the same time. One is positive and optimistic and the other is negative and pessimistic. What will happen is that our attention will focus on the one that is more dominant with our general attitude to life.
Remember that in past posts I've mentioned how what we think about the most becomes charged with emotion. Whether it's positive or negative isn't really important for this to make sense because it's a rule of the human being. Whatever it is will determine the emotion and that emotion will coarse within the body and as a result we are driven to action.
Distracting yourself by saying you do nothing is still an action of something - what this means is that you still chose to do something which was to take no action. Taking no action is still action. But it's action away from solving your current dilemma, issue, trouble or situation etc.
MY SUGGESTION:
When you have a goal in life it's important to make sure that you have reminders all around you as to why you are doing what you're doing. This could be a written and precise summary of your goal intention or a visual stuck on your fridge or walls, screensavers etc.
What I find working with people is this - when things get hard and continue until they drain your energy, people will frequently avoid looking at the positive reason that drove them in the first place.
Essentially they know that they need to re-focus but they entertain the distractions for too long and guilt or shame creep in which causes more worry and doubt. The spiral of anxiety begins to form!
So in my experiences, we must check back into the positive zone of what our purpose is, why we want this and start to connect back to what feeds us positive energy. Typically positive energy comes from doing that thing which is rooted in your passions.
Alternatively: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Eg5i1uauuII?feature=share
There's more than one way to skin a cat - APPARENTLY - but I'd highly suggest that trivial and short-term distractions are better suited to the alternative method in the video above whilst a re-visit to your LIVING WITH PURPOSE plan is crucial to reigniting that spark for more significant life changes.
Sidenote: 'more than one way to skin a cat'. Seriously, how has this become a common phrase among civilised people! Why were we skinning cats and how many methods are there? For hundreds of years were our ancestors trying to do it using a spoon and then one day someone said, "hey, maybe try the fork thing!"
Practical suggestion above. But what if your distractions are deep-rooted and keep popping back up every month? This might help...
As mentioned previously, most of the time it's us that allows distractions to happen. Your vision of your goals is a wonderfully uplifting and inspiring reality check. This is because our imagination helps to build the possible images of the goal achieved and we can put whatever we want on the screen of our minds.
Our vision is the outline of a goal but the imagination is the adding of colour which brings the image to life.
'Living with Purpose' is following a strategy for the creation of your passions into tangible and lived experience. It's why the common theme of most posts are about this subject and how best to use your own mind, especially in regards to goal setting and achievement.
Distractions are everywhere but unless bombs are dropping right outside of your window, I'm going to boldly suggest that you have more control over things than you perceive.
"KEEP TRYING NO MATTER HOW HARD IT SEEMS" - K of A-Zen of Life by Dalai Lama
Life will always test you but if you were to look at this as life merely performing a welfare check lol = LAUGH OUT LOUD - for those not savvy to modern language- life will improve. LMAO = the sound a cat with a lisp makes...I don't know if that one's correct but it makes sense to me - LMFAO = Let Me Formally Apol-Ogise!!!
I walk this way by myself just in case someone takes a picture...OBVIOUSLY NOT! But I speak to many people whose lives aren't fun anymore. I know it's not always easy to look on the bright side and I will be the first to say that everyday I am not always happy, positive, optimistic and full of energy.
But I have learnt that your dark experiences of the past or present, will make the brighter days stand out even more. In this human thing we call life, polarity exists. What it means to be human is decided upon by you so let me share one final thing if I may...
Being human is neither good or bad, black or white, fair or un-fair - it's all of it together. We can't grow as people until we embrace both positive & negative aspects of ourselves, others and the world around us!
The choice we have is to decide what we want then pursue those wants with plans, visions and actions. Along the way, you get to choose which beliefs you want to keep and which ones to discard. Whilst doing all of this you will transform and change - it might be painful and uncomfortable yet without it, you will remain the same!
Once you set a goal, it's yours to gain or lose - have faith that you can do this. A temporary setback might take you longer to get there but you will get there!
dIsTrAcTiOnS serve to keep you on track! They assume you've already fell off - your choice is, do you get back on or do you not!
Remind yourself as often as you can - why you are choosing to live with purpose!
Life is about the practice - it's about the trial and error - it's about the wins and the losses - it's about the success & failure. We'll never perfect life and that's why it's so special.
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