So many distractions and so little time!
HELP!!! Get me out of here! Too many distractions and I am feeling addicted to it all! YIKES!
Every Friday Grace and I drive 25 minutes east to a private senior citizen residential place. Grace is a certified therapy dog through Mid-Michigan Therapy Dogs. She provides love through these people petting her and smiling when they see her. Every Friday before we get on the road I have my conversation with God, please keep us safe. Expressway driving is insane, well, being on the road with others quite frankly is insane. I am so concerned with her in the backseat and the way other people drive, the distractions at high speed. WOW! Feeling trapped to all of the distractions out there?
A gentleman entered the expressway seeming like he cannot decide which lane to drive in, and continues to do this. I begin to question, does he know where he is going? Is he drunk? Having a medical issue? Or is it that dreaded cell phone? Low and behold indeed it is the eyes on the cell phone. Later that day I was coming home from another appointment and behind me is a woman curling her eyelashes at the red light and inching up closer to my trunk on my car. WTW IS GOING ON HERE?
There’s a land of distractions inside our cars…
Well actually inside our lives that we allow. Let me say this again: THAT WE ALLOW!!! Since when have our cars have become our make-up mirrors, kitchens, bathrooms, (yes bathrooms, I have seen men shaving while driving), our libraries, and offices. Whatever happened to getting in the car, driving from point A to point B and back? It’s an AUTOMOBILE! It’s a method of transportation, not a way to live while driving and paying attention to the laws of the road. HOLD ON…the safety of one’s self and thinking past one’s self: others that are on the road as well? Are we so wrapped up in our distractions? Do you really love this spinning effect of a so-called life? Plates too full, trying to achieve balance, exhausted, overwhelmed and portraying that you have it all together when in fact you do not! I can call this out because I have been here, and I crashed!
When do we shut down and just be?
Have the conversations with one’s self and a higher power? How can you hear if he is answering you with all of these distractions? NOISE!!!
Listen, I have run late for appointments and such, but that doesn’t give me the entitlement (oh-oh there is that word) to drive like speeding Indy 500 driver, talk on the phone, text, change lanes without signaling, and tailgate! Wow, just plain wow, all because we are selfish, distracted, cannot think past that second and it is all about us, us, us! (And there is a problem out there with self-care and self-preservation?) HA!
One question all around this, One Simple Question…
Is this life or is this death? Weigh it all out. Distractions people, all evil that keeps us farther away from our true souls, our miraculous beings. We are a fast paced-instantaneously selfish quick fix society. As long as you live like this, you will miss the golden treasures that await us, creativity? Ha, no room in this environment. Gratitude, yep, that is squeezed out as well.
Remember, a car is a luxury, so are cell phones, and quite frankly life in general, is a gift, a beautiful luxurious gift and we bastardize it all by taking things for granted. We want it all overnight, forget about the journey, the beauty of the ups and downs of the journey! I feel the overnight sensation is boring, so quick, like a sugar high. Life is supposed to unfold and yes with technology and the advancements of so many other ‘things’ in our lives, BUT, yes BUT, it is not to control us like we ALLOW all this ‘stuff’ to do.
Take a moment, ask yourself
Where in your life can you remove one, just one distraction today? What behavior, what action can you implement to quiet things down a bit in your life?
Business owners: where in your business can you remove some distractions? We over-commit and show up short. Don’t let distractions brand your business as nasty. This is one of my biggest peeves when I collaborate with others, I make referrals, and that person drops the ball after committing. This is bad business and people do not forget those behaviors. This is work that I do with my clients, focusing and awakening to the BIG PICTURE and cutting through all the BS distractions!
How can you cut through all the BS to arrive at your BS? Go ahead, this BS is yours to call it whatever you wish: business sloppiness, business strategies, bulls**t, best self, beautiful self, best solution, whatever you want to go from one BS to another. It is… *drumroll please,* YOUR CHOICE!
What BS to BS will you make? This is between you and your higher powers, no one else!
[Feel Free to Pin]
A few suggestions:
- Meditate
- Shut the phone off (Oh my Glob) or shut the damn computer off!
- Journal
Three easy peasy suggestions for you! See you over on the other side of the BS! So no more of the: HELP!!! LET ME OUT OF ALL OF THESE DISTRACTIONS! This is an addiction of lack. Do you really need all of this BS?
Peace,
Kim
Some great tips here Kim. I find myself distracted a lot. Especially when I’m in pain. It helps to re-focus. Pinned your pin on a group board!
Amanda, pain really isn’t a distraction, it is pain! However, if you are trying to get something done and experiencing pain, maybe set in place something for yourself: meditation, take a break and drink some tea. I know it doesn’t get rid of pain, but little things do help! thank you for the pin!
I’ll share a quick story with you. Years ago on a very busy road in a very busy city, I was driving along when I reached over to grab my smoothie from the cup holder, eyes never veering from the road. All of a sudden I hear honking and look to my right to see a mess of a woman losing her mind at me and wagging her finger. I rolled down the window and she was yelling, stop it on your phone – so I cheers’d her with my smoothie, much to her surprise, and then told her she’d better watch where she was going.
For the last 300 metres there were signs warning that her lane would end with a cement barricade due to construction, which she nearly hit at 70kms an hour, because she was too busy waiting for someone to reach down so that she could be righteous on the road. She had to veer in front of me – which I was prepared for – but the point is she could have very seriously injured herself and many others that day. I have to be responsible for me and for everyone else on the road and I can’t do that if I am distracted by my phone or my lipstick. OR, other drivers not minding the road like they should be.
So scary out there. We have too much stuff in our cars! Way to much stuff!!! We need to just drive, operate the vehicle. I am glad nothing horrible happened!
Nice suggestions! Meditation is such a good way of learning to deal with distractions because, in the beginning, you will be thinking about so many things, but, in the end, you will learn how to do it properly which will also help in general
It does Nina and some days my mind is busy, I let it go. Other days, it is quiet. All a meditation.
Oh kim it’s so amazing you do therapy with your dog! I’ve always wanted to do it and when I was a counsellor I did some work at the local shelter using the dogs to influence better behaviour with teenagers. There are now some therapy dog organisations in the UK but it’s not as common as in America – unfortunately our dog is a rescue and isn’t suitable to do therapy work with as he doesn’t like children or large dogs but I hope in the future to get another I can do some therapy with!
It is so rewarding for all involved. Hopefully, the UK will catch up soon with this.
For real. My phone is my biggest distraction and I’ve been trying to note how much I’m on it lately.
Keep track of it! And then shut it off! 🙂
I think running a business can turn you into a bit of a magpie, jumping from one task to the other without completing the former first. I’m speaking as a small business owner where every task / job is mine, I suppose it is easier if you can delegate some of them when you have staff. It’s hard, but you must remain focused and get things in a priority order, which allows you some wriggle room should something urgent come up!
yes for sure, David. I like to write things out and cross off and if something urgent springs up, I have that wiggle room! 🙂
Meditation and exercise is how I try to stay focused on what’s important
Love it!