Breaking free from the Attraction of Distraction

Many years ago, I read that there was 83,400 seconds in every 24 hours. How we choose to use this time is completely within our control. The digital revolution is here to stay. Computers, tablets and every form of mobile media are and will be intimate parts of our daily lives.

Caution! –We have all become seriously impacted by this revolution and will continually be unless; we stay conscious and vigilant to its precarious hold on our day-to-day, moment-to-moment behaviors.

We live in a world where everyone is hawking for your attention. Let's face it, for every site on the web, you have to wait 15 to 20 seconds for an advertisement to finish before you can look at your content. Every form of media is calling out your name.  Hey you!  Look here!  Buy me!

The Internet is an amazing matrix. It's a universe much like the solar system with a billion stars or in this case, websites, e-mail addresses, links, apps and every form of social media. Every company on the web is clamoring for your attention. How often do you go online only to get caught up on the headline about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, a horrific accident or may be “breaking news” or some trivial happenstance that collectively is irrelevant to our lives, our pursuits and our purpose. Yet, we are drawn to them.

Your decision to view it is none of my business. The intent of this blog is to help make you aware of the Enormity of distraction we all encounter and how much of our lives are spent somewhat unconsciously investigating the “shocking” but more often irrelevant news in the marketplace.

Time is the most precious of our resources. We can always earn more money, do paperwork at a later time but tick, tick, tick of the clock, time is lost forever.

What can we take away from this message?

Investigate and place awareness of how we allocate our time relative to its scarcity as a resource. Most of us live our lives like we will live forever. We don't! And we never will.

Ask yourself, what gets done in your life? -Your answer will help you identify where your values lie. Read that again… Yes, we do what is most important in our world. How often will we say “I'm sorry, I didn't call you on your birthday, life just got so busy. If we are honest with ourselves, there certainly was 5 min. within those 24 hours where we could have called our family member, friend or loved one to honor their birthday. Authenticity brings us to a realization that at that moment most probably other things were on our mind and once again we were distracted only to feel saddened by our inappropriate action.

I want to share with you what I was taught over 40 years ago at a seminar on time management. “I've only got a minute, only 60 seconds it. Didn't choose it, can't refuse it, but it's up to me to use it, do it now, do it now, do it now!”

Take a moment to write this down on a 3 x 5 card and keep it with you and read it 3 times a day for the next 21 days. If you take away nothing from this blog but embrace and memorize this one single fact, I promise you that living your life with this philosophy will change you both and work and at home.

It feels wonderful to be a supportive, nurturing and helpful individual. People at work will so appreciate you and your family will honor you for living deliberately, punctually and to simply be a person of your word.