Prompts
Starving the Distractions
Monday Prompt: How can I cut through the noise and get to what’s important?
In this modern age we live in, everything solicits our attention. We have the ability to be distracted anywhere and at any time. I for one have struggled with this.
‘Every morning feels like a struggle.’ I was telling a good friend of mine, about the war going on in my mind each morning. Sometimes I just sit and listen to the dialogue. The war between good and evil, discipline and indiscipline, complacency and excellence.
I am pretty sure when Aristotle says he was going to pass close to the goat market and branch the garden to get some flowers for his home, he does it and doesn't get distracted like I. I should remember to get milk from the supermarket? Well, I didn't hear you say that, because at the moment you were speaking, I got a tweet that Trump’s just being acquitted. Who thought he was behind it?
Maybe I shouldn't praise Aristotle that much, because when you think about it, he didn't have those little devices, with an apple at the back screaming his name out of his pocket every second. In his days, apple were just fruits. In my days, well I have become a fruit to the apple devices.
Noises come in various forms, while so many things, like our little devices, seek our attention, they are not the only noise that drowns our voices. In school, we learned that a weed is any plant that is unwanted. If you are trying to grow a rose garden, and pumpkin starts growing beside it, it, therefore, is a weed. Even though it is of value. It is a weed because it is in the wrong place.
This analogy applies to people as well. Friends and family members can be the noise, that distracts us from those important things that we seek to do. The passion of our heart that we wish to pursue. The noise, just like the weed, maybe intrinsically good, but it is in the wrong place and at the wrong time.
It would not be fair to point fingers at the world without, without acknowledging that sometimes a bigger portion of that noise comes from the world within. A great quote says; “beware of the thief in the street, that is after your purse. But also, beware of the thief in your head, that is after your future.”
Understanding the whole picture is to acknowledge that there are two sides to the coin. What area are you being your own huddles? I know I have kept and held myself back so many times and on so many opportunities. Because I failed to lay claim to the fact that I give power to the noise to be effective.
I cut through the noise by recognising it for what it is — a noise. Nothing more, nothing less. And just like fear, it grows on the mental energy I give to it. So I start by starving it. While I am decluttering my mind, I am also decluttering my physical space.
Below are some of the ways I am cutting through the noises.
Distractors, like devices, no longer sleep next to me. Peoples opinion of me does not have to become my reality. Not everything I say to myself is true. I have no idea what my limits are, so how dare I tell myself what I can do or cannot do?
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