Distractions. Distractions!! We all have them and they can be available at any time! They come in many forms while constantly begging for your attention relentlessly. What you do with these distractions makes allllll the difference.
As you know there are hourly updates for COVID-19 where it spreads, where it came from, where it is going, how many people are infected, how many people died how many people then the next day comes and the cycle repeats itself. It is easy to get distracted by constant discussion of a certain topic. It starts to play on your psyche. Is my nose running? Am I getting sick? Do I have coronavirus????? You may become overwhelmed. Now, how many people have it in my county? You may start to wonder where it will go next by analyzing flight patterns from Seattle to New York. Next thing you start looking up how many virions are in a typical coronavirus. Next thing you know 3 hours of your life have been wasted. Not to mention the worry and anxiety that may be the side effect. You can insert politics or sports or market woes into the coronavirus slot, those are plenty of things that will keep you distracted in life.
What is the big deal? Don’t we need distractions from life? There are times that you could use a distraction. Vacation is a great distraction. However, you should acknowledge the need for a distraction and take it. Use it to improve your health and wellness.
However, most distractions tend to take your attention away from something important: your kids, the road, maybe your goals and objectives. Your goals and objectives, that’s it. Those things you write around the New Year and don’t look at again until July when you are wondering what you have done with your year… maybe distractions only affect me. But if you become distracted here is something you can do:
- Acknowledge that something is distracting. This will allow your mind to see that thing, whatever it is, that your brain has been desperately trying to ignore. Once you recognize the presence, then you forget it. You may have to stand up take a deep breath, take a walk or run, or some other of your tried and true reframing tactics. Take a look at your daily or weekly planner. If you don’t keep a daily task planner. You can get your official Licensed To Live daily focused task planner by simply texting doctorjarret to 44222. You need that visual to get you back on task. There is nothing wrong with acknowledging a distraction, simply don’t let it distract you.
Distractions come in different forms. We were talking about things like, social media, coronaviruses, market crashes, television etc; things that take your attention away. What about things that dominate your attention span? Have you ever been distracted by your emotions? Let’s take anger as an example…. Anger is an emotion we have all experienced over our lifetimes. However, anger, even by itself can be a distraction. Whatever you are steaming mad about has taken an enormous amount of energy and focus. In fact, you may not be able to see clearly when enraged. This may not only distract but cause you to make poor decisions. It is essential to separate the emotion from the actual challenge (or problem). If forgiveness is required, you may have to forgive to move on. Take a moment acknowledge your feelings and then analyze the problem. You may even want to take another moment to find the positive in the situation. There is likely something positive that you have overlooked due to anger. Then focus on what brings you joy or happiness. You can choose to be mad or choose to be happy. It is a conscious choice.
If you have difficulty in seeing the positive, there is some help. Have you tried to use affirmations to change your mind? Affirmations get a bad rap when people don’t use them correctly. Often people think that saying affirmations once things will magically change. It doesn’t work that way all the time. However, no matter what part of your life you want to change, positive affirmations can hep you achieve your goals. Changing your thoughts, beliefs, habits and parts of your life take time. If something is deeply ingrained, it may take longer and ore effort to achieve your goal. Positive affirmations can support and enhance your progress from the first day by helping you by:
- Developing a positive outlook
- Broaden our opportunities
- Counteract negative statements
- Focus on and achieve healthy goals
- Increase your confidence
- See yourself as a beautiful person
- Change unhealthy behaviors
- Take control of your life
- Motivate yourself to take action and so much more
Affirmations actually helped me through very difficult times
in my life when I thought that I had lost everything that mattered in my life. I
wrote about it in Licensed
To Live. I have a firm belief that they can work. Many of you have been
noticing that I have been posting more affirmations on social media especially
LinkedIn. Furthermore, I have written my second Licensed To Live book, Licensed
To Live: Daily Affirmations to Rebuild your life. It will be on amazon and
Barnes and noble but for now you can get your presale
edition filed with 90 affirmations including a resource showing you how to
use your affirmations. You will get a copy autographed by me and mailed out as
soon as they are available
(enter the code FREEship19 to get a
special discount!)
So do I get distracted? Yes but I use some of the tips I have given you and more to keep myself on track. Sometimes I get distracted by work that I thought was outside my scope like when I was in Los Angeles being filmed for the movie US vs the plant a documentary about medical marijuana. I felt distracted by working with film producers, videographers, makeup artists and the like, but I realized that uncomfortable feeling was all about growth. Anyway, distractions are a part of life that we must deal with. Take time to acknowledge your distractions in whatever way they come to you and use the tips and tools I suggested to keep yourself on track. If you still need help, make an appointment with me at www.timewithdoctorjarret.com
See you next time.
