Distractions

Distractions: Events that occur in your daily life which interfere with your ability to be successful and create challenges which keep you from fulfilling your dreams.

Not long ago, I was reminded of the detrimental powers distractions have on our lives. They come in so many forms and most of the time we call them 'life'. You have probably heard it before, 'Life Happens'. When this phrase was first introduced to me, I just knew that everyone has things going on in their life that can have a tremendous impact on the amount of success they were going to achieve. The point was that we could be doing everything great and before we knew it life would happen, we lost focus on our goals, and put our dreams aside for life.

Even as I write this, I'm consumed with thoughts of work, relationships, and my overwhelming desire to provide substance within this post. This is nothing more than the distractions I am speaking of. Over the years I have met many people who tell me that they don't have time or that these were the cards they were dealt. The problem with this attitude is that you have allowed the distractions in your life to control that which you have complete control over… your dreams and goals.

Many of the people I speak with have big dreams and very ambitious goals for their family, but gave up on their own a long time ago. You hear things like, "I need to make sure Johnny gets to play in the big game" or "I don't want to let my friends down." Now don't get me wrong, we definitely need to support our friends and family. But this is where I think the connection is made when we speak of life happening. We get so consumed with our circumstances that we give control of our lives to them. I know I mentioned friends and family, but there are so many other things that create distractions in our lives. Every single one of us has a honey-do-list or some list of things that should get done. Every single item on this list has the power to control our lives to the extent that it will overtake our desire to achieve our dreams.

As a child everyone of us has big dreams but somewhere, someone or something had enough influence over us that we put our dreams on hold because we may have thought them too ambitious. This leads each and every one of us to where we are today and very rarely do I meet someone who is right where they want to be. Maybe you decided to start a family or concentrate on your career, neither of these things are bad and they both were opportunity costs. In order to pursue this, maybe you gave up the dream of playing in a rock band, finishing college, or following through on starting your own business. Life happened and now it's time to get back on track.

Distractions are just like dreams… everyone has many and few ever find resolution. Distractions can be simple, such as cleaning your desk at work or getting the oil changed in your car. Or they can be truly life altering such as unexpected health issues or loss of employment, but they can all be overcome with diligence, time, and a little bit of effort.

The Plan

Before you tackle the plan, write down some of your dreams again, the bigger the dreams, the better. Remember if you don't have a written goal, how are you going to know when you achieve it? Now, make a detailed list of all the distractions in your life. Then as you look at the list of distractions in your life, divide them into 3 categories:

1. Things that can be resolved today. Examples would include:
   
   
   • Cleaning out the garage
   • Organizing your desk, or
   • Using the financial management software you bought last year.
   
   
2. Things you can start today, but will take repeated attempts to resolve. Examples would include:
   
   
   • Taking control of your time/schedule
   • Getting back into shape
   • Start saving for that vacation you've been dreaming of
   
   
3. Things that may never get resolved, but forward progress will create a better life for you and those around you. Examples would include:
   
   
   • Seeking a support group for family loss/illness
   • Lifetime learning so you can help others
   • Starting that business you always wanted

Regardless of which category your distractions fall into, know that each and every one of them can be controlled and that you, and only you, have the power to control them. I know that these three categories may not include everything on your list. Just remember, if you want to achieve your goals and live out your dreams, you have to take control of the distractions in your life because you can either make your dreams come true or make excuses, but you can't make both.

What's This All About?

Just after 10PM and I'm just getting started…

It's a late night…

Where do I begin?

I read a book a couple of months ago about the Five Laws of Stratospheric Success and one of the laws was the Law of Value. It stated, "Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment." At first this didn't ring true to me. I have heard that you get what you deserve, but taking payment? I didn't understand. Fast forward two months and I read another book about the secrets of networking, then it hit me. What the Law of Value was all about is enriching the lives of others with no regard to the personal gains you will receive. Here it is 10 o'clock at night and I want nothing more than to share some thoughts with the world. I have always dreamt of sharing my thoughts, writing them down, immortalizing them in cyber space, but never felt as though I had anything that anyone would perceive as value.

Value is a funny thing, its reality is based in the mind of each and every unique individual. Many of us know people that are "collectors." What they collect is rather common. Why they collect is unique to each and every one of them. They find meaningful value in the things they collect. Whether it's a memory, something to fill a void, or something they enjoy looking at, the value created by these things is immense for them. For me, I see more value in the intangible things. Relationships, memories, and a positive attitude. A desire burns inside of me to become the person that others will enjoy knowing, not because I have done great things but because they have been enriched by the value I bring to their lives. The tricky part for me is if value is in the eye of the beholder, how do I make sure that the payment is not too high?

As I think on these things I am left with an internal struggle. One that has required me to get these thoughts on paper. A long time ago I was told that the human brain is for processing not storage. And if I wanted to free up my brain's processing cycles, I would have to learn to get the things I have been storing there out and put them on paper. This is my first true effort to do this. I know that you may not find as much value in reading my words as I found in writing them… and that's okay. To share a part of my life with you, a story, quote, poem, or just offer that inspirational phrase that you were needing to hear will allow me to create value in my own life so that I can make sure the payment required by you is already satisfied.

I have been inspired by many great authors and their writings over the years. Much of this blog will be created by the value their ideas created for me. Not that their ideas were anything that I have not already heard before. It's just that they were able to explain it in a way that added value to my way of thinking. Remember that you are nothing more than the sum of your experiences, influences, and the things you read. Every positive word, quote, phrase, or book adds value to who you are and over time turns you into the most valuable thing in the world… you!!!